Tea Party Leader Was Involved With GOP-Tied Political Firm

Mark Meckler, a top Tea Party leader, has worked hard to position the movement as a grassroots uprising, independent of both political parties. But just a few years ago, Meckler was involved in an online political consulting firm with ties to the GOP -- a fact that could intensify the fears of some Tea Party activists that their movement is being hijacked by Republican political operatives.

Since last year, Meckler, a northern California lawyer, has emerged as one of two national leaders and spokespeople for the Tea Party Patriots, giving frequent interviews to national news outlets. Working closely with the Atlanta-based Jenny Beth Martin, Meckler has helped build TPP into perhaps the largest and most prominent of the various Tea Party factions. If the notoriously decentralized Tea Party movement can be said to have a spokesman, Meckler has as good a claim to the title as just about anyone.

Meckler has presented himself as an ordinary country lawyer, motivated to get involved, like so many other Americans, by Rick Santelli's famous rant. The Wall Street Journal recently described him as one of the "political novices" running the movement. Even one of Meckler's many email addresses seems designed to make a point -- it begins: "mark.grassroots."

Meckler has also been careful to disavow any connection between TPP and the Republican Party, and eager to tout the group's independence. Meckler didn't respond to an interview request for this story, but he told TPMmuckraker in January that "the major parties in this nation haven't represented the American people." Last month he told NewsMax: "Anybody who expects tea party members to vote based on party lines fundamentally misunderstands the movement ... The tea party movement is made up of people who value principle above party." And CNN reported last that Meckler and Martin say they are "frustrated that other Tea Party groups are being run by Republican political consultants forking over lots of cash for recruitment" -- a reference to the Tea Party Express, which is run by a GOP consulting firm.

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea_party_leader_was_involved_with_political_firm.php?ref=fpb

Notice I said some?

Don