The Tea Party Bares All In Playboy

This month’s Playboy has a stunningly unusual and potentially disruptive article: an expose, purporting to be from an established Republican consultant, discussing how Washington hacks are controlling the political advances of the Tea Party. Penned anonymously, the article, “Confessions of a Tea Party Consultant”, strikes the reader at first blush as representing the antithesis of what the Tea Party espouses. The author is insider-y, cynical, and obviously relishes the perverse “dark arts” of winning elections. He – it’s safe to assume it’s a man – takes credit for what he himself calls “downright evil” campaign tactics. The core questions are two-fold: who wrote the piece, and why? Answering (or attempting to answer) those questions could add a critical angle to consideration of the Tea Party’s future – or expose a clumsy attempt to delegitimize it...more