Tea Party Pooper: Rick Santelli Wants Nothing To Do With Protests He Spawned

It's been over a month since CNBC's Rick Santelli called for a Chicago "Tea Party" during an impromptu rant against the government "rewarding bad behavior" with bank bailouts and mortgage relief.

Now his barely-thought-out words have crystallized into something of an anti-tax, anti-spending movement, with "Tea Party" protests planned across the country for tax day, April 15.

But Santelli and his network want nothing to do with it. The CNBC pundit is "not going and not in any way involved" in the protests, says spokesman Brian Steel.

They may feel left out come tax day -- Fox News anchors Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity have signed on with tea parties in Sacramento and Atlanta, respectively, and Newt Gingrich plans to attend a tea party in New York. Organizers say over 300 different protests will happen across the country.

"We have fully confirmed protests in 360 cities," says organizer Eric Odom, who says he is in daily conversation with local organizers and is "very confident that all the protests will happen." At least two of the protests -- the ones featuring Fox personalities -- Odom expects to bring out between five to ten-thousand people from "all walks of life," not just conservatives opposed to the Obama administration's policies.

The Huffington Post wants to have citizen journalists at as many of these events as possible. If you think you'd be interested in attending one of the Tea Parties and reporting back to us with dispatches, photos, or video, click here to sign up. We'll contact you shortly with further instructions.

Comments

[BigJim716]

These tea parties are non-partisan and reflect peoples anger at how Bush and then Obama spent money. I personally truly believed Obama would follow through on his promise of "Fiscal Responsibility" which is why I voted for him. I have been disappointed by his so-called stimulus package and his budget. What Obama says, in my opinion, means nothing anymore since he is very quick to act different then what he says.

We have two parties that simply give money to rich people. Obama with AIG and the Unions and Bush Cheney with Haliburton.

I have attended one of these events and there are as many Dems as there are Repubs. Mostly independents. I met a few people like me who also voted for Obama.

I think the people on this site need to consider the facts before you start branding the people at these events as right wing loons. These are simply regular people who are fed up with the spending from both Bush and Obama.

[PCMinistry]

What a ^&$#ing coward!

[triplec]

What is everyone problem with Santelli.. Everything he said is absolutely correct and moral. There is a broader question of fairness here. It comes down to a fundamental asymmetry that even a non-sophisticated bumpkin can see. Imagine if the government were to have said the following during the boom, "the recent price appreciation for housing represents an unearned windfall and as such we will now impose a 100% tax on all inflation-adjusted capital gains for housing". There would have been a revolution. Yet now, with the market heading the other way, we want asset price floors and principal reduction. You can't have it both ways. The system cannot work if all upside is privatized and all downside socialized. The markets are too large for the government to be in the business of providing guaranteed returns on investment via the general fund. And what of renters, many of whom are in the lower and middle classes?

[Weirdwriter]

The chickens came home to roost in a coop that is in terrible shape because Farmer Republican Values saw fit to give the money to his buddies and otherwise mis-spend the money..

Now, the new chicken coop manager, Farmer New Administration, is supposed to sit on his hands and not make repairs or efficiency improvements because the expense will add to the debt he inherited with the farm.

You need a week working on a family farm, Sophisticated Bumpkin Guy.

[triplec]

Here is a solution. Tax renters double what they are paying now and use that money to just give the homes free and clear to the folks who are 3 months behind on their mortgage payments. You know the saying.. "these are desperate times and fairness cannot be the reason we make decisions" Of course once crime increases double and no one is charitable anymore don't blame the folks living in mcmansions for free..

[roudy]

Santelli, of course, is an employee of GE. That company to date has sucked up 45 billion in bailout funds. This is many times the modest amount that was proposed to help homeowners refinance in order to avoid losing their homes.

What a hypocrite.

[AndThenOneDay]

And a gold star for roudy.

[ebanks84]

That's what punks do. Start the trouble and duck out the back door.

[dianhow]

Rick Santelli's rant was hypocritical SInce he never admitted any responsibilty for WAll st huge part in this disaster. They were allowed to go wild with greed, unethical dealings- that should have been illegal- and they sold ' junk ' securities, that they labeled as TRIPLE AAA. Those things used to be illegal-before Reagan / Bush policies of deregulation took hold. so that policy the genesis of our problems- which in turn, made it possible for this meltdown to occur. Common sense safe guards & rules were in place to prevent this type of disaster- prior to Reagan. so called " EXPERT " Alan Greenspan was a big cheer leader of deregulation. His said: " The free markets will take care of it " NOT. Free markets - free trade- Capitalism are all dandy - but they MUST BE FAIR AND REGULATED. The fair part was what the GOP left out. Since..tha­t's the way many of them do ' business' ..
Just for fun - Google " Enron loophole ' it shows McCain's buddy / advisor- doing his crooked deals which ALLOWED his lobbyist wife to make 900 K. on the backs of Enron workers. How cozy.

[HyperInfluential]

I hope local authorities are standing by to charge these people with littering and contaminating waterways if they actually throw their silly teabags into the Chattahoochee or whatever waterway they're near. Like the poor fish don't have enough to deal with already!

Perhaps George Bush was really revealing a radical departure from traditional conservative thought when he stated that "Man and fish can coexist," because it seems like maybe this whole fiasco, the whole 40-year grab for power, was based on the idea of destroying all fish. Now that Obama is going to give strong power to the EPA, they're reduced to trying to kill the fish with teabags!

[Chbronze]

I would imagine they would use the same force who cleaned up after the inauguration. We appreciated all of the enviromentalists who came to DC and threw their trash on the ground.

[boops241]

Well if you're so concerned with the environment then I guess you already know how utterly trashed the streets of washington dc were after the inauguration.

[lillypad1]

Hey Santelli--Hannitiy, Cavuto and Newt are thanking you.

[dianhow]

All shills for the far right. Newt just took Palens place at a big Repub get together.. Newt is the one back several years who taught the far right what CODE words to .use to slam the Dems.
BUT In 2008- it did NOT work. Don't forget Rove / Tom Delay - Just wait for Jan 2010-when the mid term campaign begins. The Far right / neocons lies smears , misinformation will be flying like crazy. The AGENDA- GET POWER AND CONTROL BACK -like they've had for 20 of the last 28 years.and will stop at nothing to get it back. Nothing. No matter who it hurts. That's their M.O.

[pwr2dappl]

You've got it exactly right!. They are both ruthless and shameless!!

[boops241]

How do you live with that conspiratorial mind of yours?

[ChuckiePoo]

These Republican Tax Day Tea Parties are a lot less like the American Revolution's Boston Tea Party, and much more like the Tea Party in Alice In Wonderland.

How can Republicans claim they are victims of "Taxation Without Representation"? There was an election, they voted -- and they lost. Who is to blame if fewer and fewer Americans want Republicans to represent them?

Now, the Alice In Wonderland Tea Party -- that's much more on point. There, you had a Mad Hatter, a Dormouse, Alice -- all sitting around, sipping tea and pontificating -- making wise, profound, extremely logical comments, like "I See What I Eat means the same thing as I Eat What I See"; and "I Breathe When I Sleep has the same meaning as I Sleep When I Breathe".

Clearly, the logic of the Alice In Wonderland Tea Party is the same as the logic of our current Republican Party and its Tax Day Tea Parties.

Please visit my Blog: "Conservatives Are America's Real Terrorists"
http://conservativesarecommunistss.blogspot.com/

[HyperInfluential]

Every day, in every way, the Republicans get curiouser and curiouser.

[dianhow]

Rove / Bush / CHENEY/ CAPUTO / DELAY / MADOFF
The Robber barons of the 21 st Century.
Bernie Madoof went to jail- what about the other crooks ? Get them under oath asap !

[RayRyan]

Freedom Works.
Bankruptcy Works.
Bailouts don't.
Don't reward bad behavior. Don't take the people's money to bailout the likes of: GM, Chrysler, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, etc. They should all fail. (And I promise you, they'll be OK - they'll still have their yachts and whatnot.) They took the big gambles, and they lost, fair and square. Done deal. New American banks (like the smaller community banks that avoided the subprime mess) and car companies (like Tesla in San Jose), will take up the slack, guaranteed.
When a fire ravages a forest, it's ultimately better for the forest - new growth, new life, green buds everywhere. Let the new buds bloom!
Join us at your local Tea Party. Every city's got one, even mine (San Francisco). Alice is in Wonderland. We can all lead her out.

[boops241]

I just love how all liberals know how to do is insult other parties.

[bjammin]

Aw c'mon Santelli! Reap the Whirlwind!

The Right-Wing­-Fringe-Wi­th-Too-Muc­h-Time-On-­Their-Hand­s need a Hero! They're holding out for a Hero till the end of the line!

[loki]

Snatelli, Cramer, Burnett, Kudlow and a few others are poster children for what is wrong with the people who are in our financial sectors. They all promote greed, selfishness, and feel they are superior to others because they know how to hustle , steal, and rape innocent people out of millions of dollars.
If they were on main street and not wallstreet, they would be called criminals. but Wall street admires this kind of person.

[HyperInfluential]

Yeah they actually think honest people are honest because they're just too stupid or scared to figure out how to steal. In the course of my work, I've had to listen to a lot of stock traders going about their business, and there ARE honest ones, more of them than the bad ones, but the bad ones truly do think of the honest ones as "suckers," and they're not too shy about saying so.

[totalliberal]

Will Cavuto be teabagging Hannity or the other way around. Hope it's not a cold day.

[littlepuffycloud]

They just want an excuse to tea-bag each other...

[wagthedog1001]

That was my first thought and every time I hear of one of these tea-bag parties I can picture a number of Republicans running around like drunken frat boys bagging each other. What a hoot.

[alnc]

Huffington you should avoid this Fox News crap and stay away and as far away from this mess as possible. This is one of the only things the wingnuts can do to stir up controversy and this kind of stuff can lead to other yahoo leaning ANTI GOVERNMENT activities and this could get people hurt.

We are in difficult times and these yahoos listen to HATE ALL DAY ON FOX and RIGHTWING MEDIA and will take a protect TOO FAR....tru­st me!!!!!!!!!