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The Miss Liberty America pageant may include a marksmanship category, have a goal of "restoring Liberty to the United States," and judge contestants based on their knowledge of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence ... but don't call it a Tea Party beauty pageant. That's what Tim Murphy did last week in Mother Jones, and the founder was quick to correct him. "We don't want to be associated with that," says Alicia Hayes-Roberts. "We're a corporation, we are a for-profit operation, and I can't have that."
Hayes-Roberts happens to be sister to Rutherford B. Hayes (no relation to our 19th president), a 2012 presidential candidate who appears to be "something of a Tea Partier" himself, Murphy notes: He wants to "weed out 'socialists, communists, and marxists,' ... institute a 10% flat tax ... return to the gold standard," and "abolish the IRS," among other things. Even so, his sister insists the pageant (for which her bro is the chief financial officer) is not on the "fringe"—it's "associated with what the meat of America is."
