Funding? Yes, they do contribute funds to it. So do the people I know contribute to it with no outside funding.
I think if you're handing out millions on a whim and funding whole expensive Tea Party Conventions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402884.html) and providing over half the keynote speakers, you can be said to control things rather than contribute. Granted, the control is not final (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/tea-party-convention-is-canceled/) - witness the 30 or so Tea Party groups here in GA claiming to be the "real" ones - but I think uberCash is a pretty good indicator of power.
After all, money talks. What does it matter that this grassroots bunch over here is doing this or that when Supreme Teapot Bachmann gives orders from her Koch funders and the Caucus kneels to obey?
(Yes, hyperbole here. I like to imagine Bachmann robed and hooded, intoning "Tea Leaves, gather unto me and hearken to the hot water provided by the grand Kochtopus! Act so that we may throw down the Muslin Negro Usurper!" And the Tea Party Caucus raises their hands in the air, unsheathing their Liberal Kill Daggers, screaming "DEATH TO THE ZOBAMA!")
Re: FTFY
I think if you're handing out millions on a whim and funding whole expensive Tea Party Conventions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402884.html) and providing over half the keynote speakers, you can be said to control things rather than contribute. Granted, the control is not final (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/tea-party-convention-is-canceled/) - witness the 30 or so Tea Party groups here in GA claiming to be the "real" ones - but I think uberCash is a pretty good indicator of power.
After all, money talks. What does it matter that this grassroots bunch over here is doing this or that when Supreme Teapot Bachmann gives orders from her Koch funders and the Caucus kneels to obey?
(Yes, hyperbole here. I like to imagine Bachmann robed and hooded, intoning "Tea Leaves, gather unto me and hearken to the hot water provided by the grand Kochtopus! Act so that we may throw down the Muslin Negro Usurper!" And the Tea Party Caucus raises their hands in the air, unsheathing their Liberal Kill Daggers, screaming "DEATH TO THE ZOBAMA!")