Aw, poor Dick Armey. It's a terrible, terrible thing to be under siege. At least it is to Paul Bedard at US News & World Report, who is evidently so far out of touch with Tea Party structure that he describes Dick Armey as a "supporter", rather than one of the principal architects of their so-called movement.
As chairman of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey is the lobbyist-leader and organizer of the Tea Party, not just some ardent supporter of their work. Evidently his hard work isn't going unnoticed, by friend and foe:
"FreedomWorks and Dick Armey receive dozens of threatening and harassing calls and E-mails each day. Many imply violence and use of weapons," spokesman Adam Brandon tells Whispers. "As we get closer to the election we expect the harassment to increase."
He says that FreedomWorks will hire additional security, meaning less money for its election-eve, get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, campaign. "Unfortunately, we may have to use resources for security guards that we would rather use for GOTV," he said.
Awwww. Perhaps they should give Charles Koch a ring and see if he'd be willing to kick in an extra million or so. Or, they could just run down the hall to their media buddies:
The group plans to move to 400 North Capitol Street NW, a secure building two blocks from the U.S. Capitol. That building also houses Fox News Channel's Washington Bureau and several other media outlets.
Call me cynical, but I doubt these guys are all that worried about death threats. It's really just a way to let the world know they're moving in with their BFFs over at Fox News, because you know, there was so much doubt about which way Fox News leans politically. Right?
FreedomWorks provided some of the recordings of the threatening calls to Whispers and they include physical threats and profanity aimed at the group, Tea Party spokesmen and even conservative talkers. "You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [Limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead."
Even conservative talkers? Again, maybe it's just me, but when Media Matters has an entire blog devoted to debunking Rush Limbaugh's persistent lies on a daily basis and 119 pages of search results on Sean Hannity's hackery, I'd say the phony shock over them receiving death threats is, well...phony.
