Lawyer Who Registered Tea Party Name Accused of Hijacking Movement
Orlando lawyer Fred O’Neal has registered the “Tea Party” name with Florida’s division of elections, and he’s taking some heat for it.
O’Neal, an anti-tax activist, is trying to recruit conservative candidates to the Tea Party, an idea that has some activists claiming he is trying to hijack the grassroots movement, TPMMuckraker reports. Tea Party activists in Florida and elsewhere have opposed the federal stimulus package and health care reform.
O’Neal told the Palm Beach Post that he hasn’t been involved in the Tea Party movement, but his hope is to create a political party to field candidates supporting low taxes and limited government. He’s been met with angry opponents making claims of hidden motives.
“On the blogs I’m now up to being called a Marxist, a racist, a Republican mole, a Democratic mole and a tax cheat,” O’Neal told the Palm Beach Post. “At this rate, in a couple of days I’ll probably be named as one of the Kennedy assassination co-conspirators as well as the person most responsible for global warming.”
