Dick Army Brings Armed Man into FreedomWorks Office

America is still recovering from the Newtown shooting. We have often heard radical gun rhetoric from tea party activists. That is why the news of former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey bringing in an armed man to help him stage a coup of FreedomWorks is so disturbing.

The partnership came to a crashing end when Armey marched into FreedomWorks’s office Sept. 4 with his wife, Susan, executive assistant Jean Campbell and the unidentified man with the gun at his waist —who promptly escorted Kibbe and Brandon out of the building.

“This was two weeks after there had been a shooting at the Family Research Council,” said one junior staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “So when a man with a gun who didn’t identify himself to me or other people on staff, and a woman I’d never seen before said there was an announcement, my first gut was, ‘Is FreedomWorks in danger?’ It was bizarre.’ ”

I somehow doubt these FreedomWorks employees were supporters of Armey using his Second Amendment rights.

Armey was on his way out of FreedomWorks. He eventually left with an $8 million severance package. Armstrong was losing control of FreedomWorks. A gun was a quick way for him to temporarily regain his status.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into he group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.

Armey couldn't resolve matters through office politics. So he brought an armed thug. To people like George Zimmerman and Dick Armey, the Second Amendment represents power and a legal right to bully people.

Quote of the Day

"Social security is a pay-as-you-go Ponzi scheme. They knew very well that the extra $250 billion would be spent on their social schemes."

Dick Armey

Can Armey explain exactly what "social schemes" Armey is talking about. Are there a bunch of men in a room plotting how to steal money from the Social Security trust fun and doing their version of the Dr. Evil laugh?.

The recession and unemployment has created a projected revenue shortfall for the next decade. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes is 0.7 of the GDP over the next 75 years. There can be adjustments that will anger conservatives (people making more than $250,000) and liberals (raising the retirement age. These modest adjustments can fix Social Security.

The United States is bound by law to pay all debts. It would be illegal for the federal government not to give retired Americans their Social Security checks. Armey fails to add that tidbit of information. It is easy for Armey to scare people about a federal program he hates.

Quote of the Day

"But let us be clear about one thing: The tea party movement is not seeking a junior partnership with the Republican Party, but a hostile takeover of it."

Dick Armey, in his Wall Street Journal op-ed.

An anonymous K Street consultant wrote an article in Playboy explaining how he is pulling the strings of the Tea Party. Armey is another person who is directing the Tea Party through Freedom Works. The Tea Party has grown from its humble beginnings into a force the Republican Party fears. The question is does Mitch McConnell and John Boehner realize the Tea Party doesn't need them?

Dick Armey & Big Phama

Lindsay Beyerstein has an exclusive story on Dick Armey's involvement with Freedom Works and his lobbying activities.

One wonders whether Armey had much time left over for his lobbying clients at DLA Piper that year, which included pharma giant Sanofi-Aventis and the Medicines Co.. (Armey represented Sanofi again in 2008 and continued to represent the Medicines Co. through 2009.)

Freedom Works is one of the major astroturfing groups behind the tea party movement. Armey resigned from DLA Piper law firm. He told Politico the phama companies he was representing would face too much media scrutiny.

Lindsay brings up the points that these kind of lobbying and political connections should be brought out into the open. Her second point is big phama companies don't want the negative stink of the Freedom Works and angry townhall meetings. Her article is worth reading.

Fred Thompson on End of Life Issues

Many people (myself included) do not see Fred Thompson speaking passionately about anything. He spoke with great conviction about how the government should have stayed out of the decision to take the brain dead Terri Schiavo off the feeding tube.

Citing his own personal experience with the death of his adult daughter in 2001, Thompson said the question is “an intensely personal thing with me,” and added, “It should be decided by the family. The federal government and the state government, too, except for the court system, ought to stay out of those matters as far as I’m concerned.”

Thompson was faced with with the decision with the same difficult decision. His daughter Elizabeth Thompson Panici died from an accidental overdose.

"I was at that bedside and I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family," Thompson said" "And I will assure you one thing, no matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made the right decision."

This statement will hurt his damaged reputation with the Christian Right. It says much about how the Republican Party has become fed up with having to pander to people like James Dobson. Dick Armey described James Dobson as a man "you can‘t make that man happy." Armey said Dobson should have the courage to run for public office and stop abusing Republican candidates.

2008 will be a pivotal year for the Christian Right. I will be more than happy if it diminishes their political influence. Supporting the Iraq war, intolerance towards gays and saying that global warming is nonsense illustrate how angry these people are. They are all Old Testament fire and brimestone. Amanda Marcotte sums up what Thompson's stance does for his presidential hopes.

He’s underestimating how much of the Republican party is fueled by a bunch of busybodies that just know that they are the final moral arbiters on other people’s lives, and they don’t need to be bothered with things like facts or understanding before declaring other people unfit to make the most private decisions about their lives. In other words, he’s toast.

I concur.

Marco Rubio: In Search of A 100 Original Ideas

It's amazing how much Marco Rubio's Miami Herald op-ed mirrors an email sent out by the Dick Armey think tank Freedom Works.

Marco Rubio

Other estimates indicate that Kyoto-like carbon caps could result in electricity bills that rise from the current 8-cent per kilowatt average now seen in the United States to the 25-cent kilowatt average which burdens families in Europe. The United Kingdom alone saw a 14-percent increase between 2005 and 2006. Floridians already are paying too much in taxes and insurance. The last thing we need is higher utility bills.

Freedom Works

Armey accused Crist of ''pandering to radical enviromentalists'' and asked: ``What about hard-working Floridians whose family budgets are stretched to the limit because of high gasoline prices and skyrocketing home energy costs? For them, Crist's mandates will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.''

Rubio has also called Crist's proposal "European-style big government." When in doubt, Republicans mentions foreigners to scare the daylights out of voters.

I yawned when I heard Crist's climate change proposals. The details have been sketchy. Will these changes account for Florida's population growth? If the state's track record on growth management is any indication then the answer is no. The technology for alternative sources of fuel have been lagging. Partly because Republicans have been resistant to it. Energy companies are a powerful source of lobbying in Florida. Republicans were silent when Jeb Bush sign a bill to end emissions testing.

The Freedom Works argument about alternative sources of fuel becoming expensive is laughable and anti-capitalistic. Gas prices have skyrocketed while conservatives have repeated the same doomsday warming. The truth is they do not want other sources of fuel competing with gasoline. Competition would give consumers choices. Republicans aren't going to let that happen.