The Tea Party Grift

Washington Post:

When the Tea Party Patriots threw its support last month behind Matt Bevin, the underdog conservative challenger trying to unseat top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, President Jenny Beth Martin vowed the group would be “putting our money where our mouth is.”
So far, its super PAC has mustered just $56,000 worth of mailers in Kentucky on Bevin’s behalf — less than half the amount it has paid Martin in consulting fees since July.
The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, which blew through nearly $2 million on expenses such as fundraising, polling and consultants in the first three months of this year, is not alone in its meager spending on candidates.
A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year’s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they’ve endorsed....
Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation....
Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating....
Three well-known groups — the Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Express and the Madison Project — have spent 5 percent or less of their money directly on election-related activity during this election cycle.

I'm shocked that little money from some of these PACs have gone to candidates, and lots of money have gone to the consultants and insiders (SarahPAC, anyone?).  As Rick Perlstein has demonstrated, much of the energy of conservatism for the past 50 years has gone into separating true believers from their money.  The worst part is that some of the richest folks in America are also some of the biggest marks.  Look how much money old man Ricketts, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers fed to useless pieces of shit like Karl Rove and Frank Luntz in the 2012 election.  I feel bad for the old folks who can't afford to get conned by these crooks, but as for the Ricketts and Adelsons and such, I just wish they were paying that money in taxes as opposed to keeping Karl Rove fat.