Actually, this got started with Rick Santelli's rant.
Interesting food for thought. I haven't read the book so I don't have a solid comment beyond posting this piece:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/blog/stu/Okay, let’s play a game. A New York Times reporter has written a book in which she traces the Tea Parties back to their pre-Rick Santelli beginnings. (Ugh…this isn’t going to go well.)
Can you guess who they found is really responsible for the start of the Tea Parties?
a) White male in Michigan Militia
b) Former grand wizard of the KKK
c) Millionaire health care executive
d) Karl Rove
e) Half-Mexican math teacher
The answer is…shockingly…E? Really? Yup.
She’s a half-Mexican math teacher with a nose piercing who enjoys doing improv theater on weekends. Her name is Keli Carender and she’s just the beginning of the Tea Party story Zernike tells in her new book, Boiling Mad.
Makes me want to get a nose piercing. A friend of mine who has read the book, says while it’s not a Tea Party puff-piece by any means, it’s a relatively fair look at the Tea Parties from someone in the mainstream media. Who knew it was possible?
In the media environment we’re all used to, we know Glenn is going to get trashed no matter what he says. It’s part of the gig. But one of the most annoying parts of the last year and a half is how the media has gone after the overwhelmingly normal people who make up the Tea Parties and 9-12 groups around America. It will be nice if someone has the guts to tell the truth about them.