video A Saturday afternoon Fox News report revealed much about the situation on the ground at the Tea Party Convention this weekend in the lead up to Sarah Palin's keynote address. The Fox reporter, though, was careful to note that the Tea Partiers are a disparate group, and this convention is by no means representative of the entire movement. Much of this point focuses on the issue of the Birthers, who believe President Obama is not a natural born citizen, and are a cause for concern among conservatives wishing to focus more on substantive (factual?) issues. (more...)

video Rachel Maddow was not pleased last night with the National Tea Party Convention's opening speech from Rep. Tom Tancredo, who she called a "failed presidential candidate" and "professional anti-immigrant." He started the event off with a "big, loud racist bang," Maddow said, before showing a clip of Tancredo advocating for a literacy test for all voters. "People who could not even spell the word vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama," Tancredo said, leading Maddow to compare the crowd to the Ku Klux Klan. (more...)

Who: Jeffrey Toobin, Calvin Trillin, Janeane Garofalo and Jonathan Alter, moderated by Andy Borowitz What: The Andy Borowitz Report: Obama’s First Year Where: 92nd St. Y When: January 27, 2010 Thumbs: Up Host/moderator Andy Borowitz set the tone for the evening with ten minutes of stand-up comedy at the top of the event. It sent the message that this wasn’t going to be the same old discussion evaluating the president’s first year in office. It was a night with more laughs than sharp critique. And that’s just what the crowd was looking for on the night of the president’s State of the Union address. (more...)

For a third straight night, Countdown host Keith Olbermann pressed his attack against Scott Brown, whom he first called "racist" and "homophobic," among other things, then apologized for not attacking harder. Last night, he noted that defenders of Brown had accused him of lying, but offered no refutation. He then laid out the proof of his claims in his new "quick comment" segment and dared someone to disprove him. I'll give it a shot. (more...)

A segment from last night's Countdown is generating a lot of heat in the conservative blogosphere, with the general consensus being that Keith Olbermann cried "Racism!" on the Massachusetts special election, and cited Scott Brown's pickup truck as an example. I watched the exchange between Keith and Howard Fineman last night, and I don't think the right is being fair to Keith. In fact, I think they might owe him an "attaboy" or two. Here's the segment in question: (h/t Eyeblast) (more...)

On today's "This Week" roundtable, The Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel invoked the term "tea-bagger," prompting a disgusted protest from Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson. Vanden Heuvel's response was to plow through Carlson's objections, a strategy which, no doubt, delighted liberals and infuriated conservatives. The term "tea-bagger" has become a gargantuan red herring, almost a "red spermwhale," if you will. (more...)

"Both Steele and Palin claim to be devotees of the tea party movement. 'I’m a tea partier, I’m a town-haller, I’m a grass-roots-er' is how Steele put it in a recent radio interview, wet-kissing a market he hopes will buy his book. Palin has far more grandiose ambitions."

-- Frank Rich, in today's New York Times op-ed "The Great Tea Party Rip-Off," about how a grassroots movement is being exploited, not only by politicians seeking election, but by companies, marketers and lobbyists. (more...)

video At yesterday's White House Briefing, Jake Tapper asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the Tea Party protest that was occurring on Capitol Hill yesterday. Gibbs responded by saying that he was tempted to make a joke about Tea Party speaker Jon Voight. Despite cajoling, he resisted. Despite that, we couldn't resist an attempt to get him to clarify. (more...)

video Are you familiar with Michelle Bachmann yet? Perhaps you are on the receiving end of her many email newsletters without being entirely sure why. Bachmann is a congresswoman from Minnesota who appears to have seen which way certain winds are blowing in the Republican party, and has recently gone about trying to make herself over into some sort of Glenn Beck meets Sarah Palin combination. Yesterday, perhaps in an attempt to grab some of the spotlight before Sarah Palin reseizes the airwaves during her upcoming book tour, Bachmann threw a teabagger 'Superbowl for Freedom' party in D.C. where she encouraged people to 'kill the bill.' (more...)

video President Obama just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to holding the nation's attention with details of his health care plan. Perhaps the President should embrace a 'if you can't beat'em, join'em' mentality and stage his own outburst. It may be a good last resort before all is lost. Consider this. (more...)