Sharrrrrrrrrrrrron Angle: She's Baaaaaaaaaack! (And She's NOT Alone!)

(Also at Daily Kos)



Apparently "Our Lady of Perpetual Campaigning" invaded California on Saturday to sell her books and raise money for her next campaign "meet with real patriots!"

And if that wasn't bad enough, their lousy attempt at Vaudeville comedy got even worse once they returned to Nevada (to torture us yet again!).

The Tea Party Express continued its cross-country tour Sunday with a midday rally in the heart of Nevada that featured about a dozen speakers and musicians focused on "reclaiming America" in the 2012 election.

Headlining the event was Sharron Angle, who lost to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2010. Angle is traveling with the bus tour and is expected to speak at most of the events along the way.

The Elko Daily Free Press reported that Angle told the crowd of about 75 people -- organizers pegged the crowd at closer to 100 people -- that the Republicans will take control of the U.S. Senate after the 2012 elections if people get involved in races around the country.

Tea Party Express communications director Levi Russell said the event was a success, especially considering that it was held on a Sunday.

"It was a small crowd, but enthusiastic," he said.

"We're happy that they came out to hear our message."

Other speakers included Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express co-chair, and Tabitha Hale of the Washington, D.C.-based conservative group FreedomWorks.

There's no word yet on whether Elko saw the same "colorful characters" that emerged in Searchlight last year...



But it does look like their "Tea Party Express" is losing steam on the open road. Now that we're seeing with our own eyes their strategy coming to full fruition as federal government becomes even more chaotic and dysfunctional, they're not seen as innocently as they were last year.

It seems that the Tea Party's governing style, most clearly on display during the debt ceiling fight in Congress, has taken a toll on Americans' view of the movement. Polls have been showing a drop in its approval, and a new AP/GfK poll shows that its unfavorable rating has seen a sharp rise. 46 percent of those surveyed said they have a negative view of the Tea Party movement, versus 28 who say they view it favorability.

The last time the AP conducted a national poll on Americans' favorability of Tea Partiers was in their pre-governing period: throughout 2010 the conservative movement was viewed slightly unfavorably but the splits were close. In June of 2010 it even earned a positive rating, with 33 percent of over 1,000 adults surveyed finding the movement favorable against 30 percent. In the last AP rating, taken Nov. 3-8, 2010, directly after the 2010 election, the split stood at a slim negative rating of 32 percent favorable against 36 unfavorable.

But can "unpopularity" really stop them? Remember when Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrron was pummeled for this?



She herself didn't win here in Nevada, but her "ideas" masquerading as "change" most certainly did win in other parts of the country. Look at how much President Obama and Congress have had to give in to them, and look at what we're getting in return. Economic recovery has been anemic at best, and the still jobless aren't seeing any of it. And when the American people are demanding job creation the most, all we're seeing out of Congress now is endless partisan brinksmanship and attacks on bedrocks of American society, such as Social Security and Medicare, that working class families need the most right now.

And of course, the Republican Presidential Candidates are tossing out all this teabagger nonsense as red meat to an increasingly radical and extreme "base". Watch Rick Perry call Social Security a "ponzi scheme" and a "lie".



How is this different from what Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrrrron said?



For Republicans, extremism has become "the new mainstream". Here in Nevada last year, a slew of powerful Nevada Republicans ran away from Angle as fast as they could. Yet other than a few traditional Republicans like Ben Bernanke chiding their extremism, Rick Perry and his ideological soulmates in Congress are seeing more and more love from that radical "base". And despite what all the rest of us think about their crashing and burning of government, they don't care as long as the teabaggers love it and "Tea Party, Inc." keeps pumping the dirty corporate money into their campaigns.

I saw this for myself last weekend. My Congressman refuses to meet with us, his own constituents, because we're not contributing to his campaign and the Republican Party (even though we pay his and his staffers' salaries!).

And that's why we can't be complacent at all. Public outrage clearly isn't enough to defeat these extremists. They'll probably just buy even more TV and radio air time to try to brainwash voters again "tell their side of the story". Sharron Angle may not be in Congress herself, but her radical ideology is increasingly becoming the policies being debated and implemented in federal government now. If we don't like this, then we have to stop electing her ideological kindred spirits.