Tea Partiers Protest Own Convention

One way to get around high ticket prices: stage your own event. Four disgruntled Tennessee tea party activists held their own news conference outside the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, calling out the “grassroots” event for its $550 price tag. “There are a lot of citizens in the state of Tennessee today who could not afford to be here… particularly in this economy,” said one. “They’re just as patriotic. They’re just as concerned.” Two of the protesters had helped plan the event early on, but resigned due to objections over the direction it was taking. The four Tennesseans even had harsh words for their movement’s political leaders, and one said, “We don’t need Sarah Palin to be the face of our movement. We don’t need Newt Gingrich or any of these other people, because these people are humans and they can fail. Our values will never fail us as long as we adhere to them.”