Charges of Profiteering Mar Tea Party Convention Plans

A convention that promised to bring together the grassroots groups that make up the Tea Party movement is embroiled in controversy as planners spar over concerns about profiteering and the expense of the event, the New York Times reports. When the conference's $549 ticket price was announced, many Tea Partiers complained that it was becoming just another establishment money-making scheme. Sarah Palin alone is rumored to be making $100,000 or more for her keynote speech at the Nashville event next month.

Tea Party events swept the country last year, uniting around the common principles of fiscal conservatism and belief that government has overstepped its constitutional bounds, particularly in the bailouts of large companies and in the Democrats' proposed health reform legislation. A number of groups with different emphases, leaders and constituents were planning to participate in the convention, but as it draws near, skepticism reigns.

Phillip Glass, the national director of the National Precinct Alliance, said his group would no longer participate because it was concerned that Tea Party Nation, the event organizer, was profiteering. "We are very concerned about the appearance of T.P.N. profiteering and exploitation of the grass-roots movement," he said in a statement. "We were under the impression that T.P.N. was a nonprofit organization like N.P.A., interested only in uniting and educating Tea Party activists on how to make a real difference in the political arena."

The head of Tea Party Nation, Sherry Phillips, told the Times that her organization is a nonprofit group.

Erick Erickson, the editor of the conservative site RedState.com, said the convention felt "scammy," and that he believes the organizers are in it for profit.