The teabagger "movement" started as an Astroturf scam. It was developed to play on rightists' fears of government healthcare and their racism by lobbying and PR people for the HMOs and the health insurers. It was designed to create the false impression that there is wide public opposition to single payer healthcare and the public option, despite the fact that both have consistently overwhelming public support in opinion polls.

The original name of the rallies and participants, "teabaggers" even has the fingerprints of that origin. It is precisely what one would expect of nerdy, out of touch DC PR people.

Yet, the poor schmoes who were sucked into the teabagging scam actually believed that it is their movement. They started forming their own organizations and websites. They stopped blindly supporting the Republican Party establishment, demanding ever more pure and publicly strident rightist lunatics over the more electable rightist lunatics that make up the vast majority of Republican politicians.

This was not to be tolerated.

Corporate and wealthy interests have cracked down on their creation on a variety of fronts. Dale Robertson, the most prominent leader of the nascent teabagger grassroots, has been disowned by the corporate owners of the Astroturf scam because Robertson's racist views were no longer deemed convenient. The same racism and racists that the corporate propagandists had stoked so opportunistically was forgotten in much the same way that Stalin made historical figures into nonpersons.

The corporate owners of Teabagging Inc. decided to hold a national teabagging conference with high fees and travel costs that locked out most of the followers of the teabagging movement. This was not accident. The conference was mostly attended by the same tired establishment rightist propagandists and rich Republicans that show up for all the Gopper hatefests.

Sarah Palin chose sides in this class based power struggle. She chose the side which would pay her a six figure speaking fee. Things like this should convince middle class teabaggers that Palin is about as much of a woman of the people as Marie Antoinette, but many teabaggers are just too stupid to catch onto these things.

The Texas Republican primary for governor is another example of how Teabagging Inc. clamped down hard on its flock. Glenn Beck, who has been a leader in the effort to create the teabagging scam, turned on his own viewers by attacking teabagger candidate Debra Medina (who also is a famous Paulintologist) for saying that the 911 truth people make some good points. This was particularly ironic, given the fact that the official narrative of 911 is just as much of a conspiracy as the other narrative and that Beck is notorious for coming up with conspiracy theories so far divorced from reality that they have provided much comic relief for blogs on the left.

Wealthy and corporate interests weren't satisfied with that. They sent in that reliable hack, Sarah Palin, to campaign for Rick Perry against the teabagger candidate. They gave so much money to Perry and his other opponent, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, that Medina came in third in the race. The last thing that the wealthy owners of Teabagging Inc. want is for their sheep to start running their own candidates and winning.

Now, we have news that the GOP has chosen former Phonycrat turned Republican, Parker Griffith, to deliver the weekly GOP radio address. The teabaggers hate Griffith and are supporting other candidates in the GOP primary. Make no mistake, Griffith is a far right extremist. He just isn't nutty enough to satisfy the teabagging zombies who want to lynch everyone who isn't as deranged as they are.

The choice of Griffith for such a prominent GOP platform is meant as a deliberate slap in the face of the followers of the teabagging movement. So is the decision of House Minority Leader John Boehner to host a fundraiser for Griffith. (Hat Tip: Left In Alabama)

It will be interesting to see how the teabagging flock will respond to the very clear message that corporate interests and the GOP are sending for them to sit down and shut up.

Photos: ProgressOhio

ProgressOhio

Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com