Failed Politician Calls for Assassination of Obamas

Bigots aren't welcome, say leaders

(NEWSER) - Tea Party groups are fighting to overcome widespread perceptions that their movement is racist. Polls show that some 30% of Americans see the movement as motivated by racism against the nation's first black president, a figure that rises to 61% among opponents and sinks to 7% among supporters. Leaders say that while racists exist within the loose network of Tea Party groups, they're doing their best to end the association. More»

Says hijacking note he put in pal's luggage was just a joke

(AP) - A 31-year-old man from Utah is facing a federal charge after he allegedly left an apparent prank note that included the words "hijack plane" and "kill Obama" in his co-worker's luggage. Jeremiah Douglas Hill, of Clinton, was charged yesterday with one misdemeanor count of making a false alarm for intentionally circulating a false warning of a plane hijacking. More»

2 years after Tea Party peak, few inroads made into GOP

(NEWSER) - Regardless of who wins the presidential election in November, it is clear who lost—the Tea Party, reports Politico . The Republican Party, which just wrapped up its annual meeting of state chairmen yesterday, is still all establishment, with almost no Tea Party members on its 168-member governing committee. Tea Partiers may have county chairmanships and seats on state committees, but it will take years for them to work their way up the GOP's ladder. More»

We can't imagine why anyone would be offended, can you?

(NEWSER) - Former Rick Santorum sugar daddy Foster Friess picked an unfortunate metaphor in an interview yesterday on Fox Business. "There are a lot of things that haven’t been hammered at because Rick and Mitt have been going at each other," he said, according to the LA Times . "Now that they have trained their barrels on President Obama, I hope his teleprompters are bullet-proof." More»

Establishment, Tea Party, libertarians all negative in different ways

(NEWSER) - With the Republican Party so divided, it's no surprise that its response to President Obama's State of the Union address would also be divided, notes the Washington Post . In addition to an official response by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and a Tea Party response by Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates also weighed in:

• Cain's rebuttal focused on familiar Tea Party complaints—"Obamacare," "class warfare," and the "liberal media." Cain also addressed old sexual harassment allegations against him, noting that the "false attacks" derailed his campaign, but that accusations against Newt Gingrich failed because "the American people are waking up to dirty, gutter politics,” he said. “The American voters are saying, ‘We ain’t stupid.’"