Tax Protest Origins: Ron Paul Supporters Make Case On "Rachel Maddow" (VIDEO)

HuffPost has comprehensive coverage of the Tax Day Tea Party protests. Click here for the latest photos and video.

Who invented this Tea Party stuff, anyway? Glenn Beck? Rick Santelli? Twinings? The matter is up for dispute. Serious dispute. In fact the dispute over who invented the tea party may be a more serious and substantive dispute than anything that will actually be disputed at the Tea Parties themselves.

On the Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday night, Maddow explained the burgeoning teabaggy rift that's emerged within the teabaggers. On one side: RON PAUL SUPPORTERS! They were going to float around the country on a blimp and drop tea into Boston harbor. On the other side: a special Astroturf comprised of Newt Gingrich and Fox News and Dick Armies.

It's Paul's supporters who most strenuously claim ownership, and they largely feel that their great works have been co-opted by the GOP. Maddow quotes libertarian activist Jason Pye, who griped to the Washington Independent thusly:

Bringing in someone like [Newt] Gingrich takes away from the message...Newt Gingrich enabled George W. Bush...he enabled the big spending. He lobbied conservative Republicans to compromise their principles and support Medicare Part D. He supported the bailout."

Then Maddow has a guy named Stephen Gordon on, and suggestive teabagging japery ensues, involving Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee and props.

[WATCH.]

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But, do the libertarian/Ron Paul factions have a case? Wonkette's Ken Layne thinks so, insisting, "this is one thing we are going to totally give to the Paultards. They started it. We were there, man. We were there." And, actually? He pretty much was!

This is from your editor's RADAR Magazine story about the ultimately failed attempt to ride the blimp to Washington and then to Boston, for the stated purpose of dumping tea into Boston Harbor, as a protest, against the big-spending Republicans, particularly the hated George W. Bush:

The original flight plan was a thing of goofy beauty: The airship would cruise over Washington, DC, the nucleus of Imperial America, land in northern Virginia for a triumphant rally, then fly to New York City to buzz the evil Federal Reserve Bank on Wall Street. From there it would cruise to Boston to reenact the original Tea Party by tossing boxes of tea into the harbor from hundreds of feet in the air, while crowds of Paul supporters and journalists looked on in wonder. Finally, there would be a three-week-long crisscrossing tour of the New Hampshire skies. Up until January 8, the date of the all-important primary in the Granite State, the great craft would mercilessly harass the other candidates from the air.

It was understood by everyone else on the Ron Paul discussion forums that the blimp would forever change America. Eyes would be opened. The "sheeple" would see the truth. All the Paulians had to do was cough up $200,000 by December 7 for a month's blimp rental from Airship Management Services in Elizabeth City.

There. Stop arguing. Paultards for the win. Let the teabagging continue, but without Republicans, who were the target. GO RON PAUL.

To me, "Tea Parties" are about the beautiful dreams of innocent children, and look at how many such dreams of whimsy are knit up in Layne's account! Ron Paul! The Ron Paul Forum! RADAR Magazine! Writing for RADAR Magazine! Blimps! Writing about Ron Paul for RADAR Magazine on blimps! We thus rule in favor of the Ron Paul origin story.

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Comments

[BOin08]

05:00 PM on 04/16/2009

Sophomoric commentary from Olbermann is par for the course, his sober adult audience left months ago, but jumping into the tea bagging vulgarities was so unoriginal and insulting coming from an educated woman like Maddow and professional journalist like Cooper. We expected so much more. Shame on you both.

[Joseph Upton]

07:21 AM on 04/16/2009

Ron Paul is great but some of his fans aren't always correct.

[Bettysdad]

03:51 AM on 04/16/2009

Complaining that your pathetic, infantile idea was stolen?

[John Spitler]

01:22 AM on 04/16/2009

Paultards!!!

[Bcasey11]

08:51 PM on 04/15/2009

FINALY REPUBLICANS DON'T GET THIS MOVEMENT, RON paul is smart.

[truelockCA]

07:44 PM on 04/15/2009

Waiting approval from whom...testing to see how a post ever gets through.

[Bush-Rolled]

07:30 PM on 04/15/2009

Heh-heh, she said tea bag. Heh-heh, he said a pair of sweetened Southern tea bags. Heh-heh, he said Republican officials in the deep south. Somebody please say Dick Armey. Did anybody at Fox think to invite John Boehner to one of these tea bag affairs?

[truelockCA]

07:28 PM on 04/15/2009

I feel sorry for Racheal. I think more people will see this on Huff post than actually watch her show. The Tea party "idea" is crazy popular here in CA....certain areas here now have a 11% sales tax rate. Easy to figure out it's not really a left or right issue here.

[LiberalsAreSick]

06:43 PM on 04/15/2009

A clip from The Rachel Madcow Show? No thank you.

[NWBrunette]

07:18 PM on 04/15/2009

Its hard for darkness to want to see the light.

[Weirdwriter]

04:23 PM on 04/15/2009

The extremists took over the Republican party long ago, so, heck, yes, why not this Astroturf publicity stunt?

[DoTheMath]

04:12 PM on 04/15/2009

"the dispute over who invented the tea party may be a more serious and substantive dispute than anything that will actually be disputed at the Tea Parties themselves."

That seems likely. In another article here, I saw a picture of a Fox newscast displaying "Anti-Tax Tea Party." Anti -tax. Now, that's a theme for a serious, substantive discussion.
First Protester: I don't like taxes.
Second Protester: Neither do I, so let's move to a deserted island.
First Protester: Make that two islands, one for each of us.

Next week they're going to protest death.

[Tom Joad]

03:50 PM on 04/15/2009

can you say "C R A C K U P"? Now we see the entire party implode on itself. that giant succking sound you hear is all that's left of The Republiban.

[trief]

08:02 PM on 04/15/2009

This isn't infighting. Libertarians have always disliked Republicans.

[Bettysdad]

03:53 AM on 04/16/2009

Libertarians are just Republicans that want to get high and watch porn.

I said that to the VP of our local Libertarian chapter. He paused, smiled and agreed.

[Jacqattack]

03:32 PM on 04/15/2009

Let the in-fighting begin...

[Skyhawk]

03:16 PM on 04/15/2009

The original tea parties were a protest against government subsidies to a big corporation (the British East India Company) in which the chief executive was a major shareholder, at the expense of small business (private tea importers).

So the rethug tea party really means - You pay taxes so the rich doesn't have to.

[captainkalt]

02:46 PM on 04/15/2009

it was actually started by 9/11 truthers.....you won't hear that in the mainstream media though

[IndieBlue]

03:24 PM on 04/15/2009

Can't imagine why the MSM would want to replay the inane rantings of the "truthers". Lol.

[captainkalt]

03:38 PM on 04/15/2009

yea hilarious......since family members of the victims of 9/11 started the truth movement after 70% of their questions were neglected by the 9/11 Commission. Watch Press for Truth or look into the 9/11 Jersey Girls...just a bunch of inane rantings though, don't mind those crazy conspiracy theorists