Bachmann and Blackburn Bail on Tea Party

Even before the Tea Party’s $549-a-head convention next week, some of the movement’s biggest champions are partied out. Representatives Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, two Tea Party heroines, have canceled their appearances at the National Tea Party Convention, which begins next Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. Their withdrawals are the latest in a string of setbacks for the event, billed as a historic coming together of newly vocal anti-big-government activists. Major conservative groups and commentators have bagged their plans to attend the convention, questioning the motives of the organization running it, Tea Party Nation, and the event’s potential ties to the Republican establishment...read more