Rep. Michele Bachmann Rebuked by Tea Party for Roy Blunt Endorsement

Tea Party members are furious with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for her endorsement of Republican Congressman Roy Blunt over state Sen. Chuck Purgason in the Missouri Senate primary.

Bachmann plans on traveling to St. Louis this weekend to campaign for Blunt, who has drawn the ire of the conservative Tea Party movement because of his vote for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the federal bailout of Wall Street firms.

Tea Partiers, who support the anti-tax Purgason, said they were "shocked" that Bachmann would back Blunt, adding "she has been grossly misled if she understands him to be a Missouri Tea Party candidate."

Bachmann heads the Tea Party Caucus in Congress.

"Tea Party participants believe the spending in Washington has to STOP," Tea Party groups said in a statement obtained by The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "Roy Blunt voted for TARP and Cash for Clunkers. For Michele Bachmann to come to Missouri and give the impression that all the Missouri Tea Parties support Roy Blunt is an abomination of everything we have been standing up for."

It isn't the first time Bachmann, has been criticized by the movement that has hailed her in the past.

Last month, New Jersey GOP congressional candidate Alan Bateman said Bachmann "sold out the Tea Party movement" after she appeared in a robo-call on behalf of Republican incumbent Rep. Chris Smith.