Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn Back Out of Tea Party Convention

Amid a growing row over the planning and financial arrangements of the upcoming Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) have backed out of the conservative event, Politico reports. The two representatives cited uncertainty about where the money from the event would be going as their reason for declining to participate. They were scheduled to join Sarah Palin as speakers.

Controversy over the convention began earlier this week, when several Tea Party groups accused the event's organizer, a little-known Tennessee lawyer, of profiteering. The event's $549 ticket price led some to believe that Tea Party Nation founders Lou and Sherry Phillips were using the event to enrich themselves, though they claim they were planning to use the profits to seed a conservative 527 organization.


Blackburn said she told Phillips in a telephone conversation that the lack of clarity on how the event profits would be used put her in an awkward position. "Convention organizers have not been clear about how those funds will be put to use," her office said in a statement Thursday. "We have every indication that any profit could be put to work to advance grass-roots causes, and some of those uses could make the congressman's participation improper after the fact."

"There is uncertainty about how any proceeds from the event may be used," a spokesman for Bachmann (pictured) added, "and we must err on the side of caution."
Palin, however, defended the event, at which she is scheduled to give the keynote address. "This is about the people -- the grass-roots' activists whose core values demand a responsible government," she told Politico. "This is not about politics or organizers, it is about the soul of our blessed country." Palin is reportedly receiving in excess of $100,000 for her appearance, and tickets to her speech alone cost around $350.

Lou Phillips said he is having trouble selling tickets to the event, and has scrapped the idea of funding a 527 organization -- a tax-exempt group set up to influence the election or appointment of public officials. He is now simply hoping to break even.