The anti-corporate Tea Party? No: will oppose some corporations, give others a pass (FreedomWorks, useful idiots)

FreedomWorks [1] have a new effort to get the tea parties to espouse an anti-corporate message.

The teapartiers, Fighting the Power?

Not so fase: if you're familiar with both the teapartiers and Freedom Works, you know there's a catch, and indeed there is: they're only going to get the tea partiers to oppose *some* corporations, while helping or ignoring another set.

Don't worry: the teapartiers will continue to be useful idiots for some corporations, just not all of them.

From this:

Jesse Jackson isn't the only activist that can use corporate boycotts for political purposes. Starting next year, the huge Tea Party organizer FreedomWorks will urge supporters to punish huge corporations like General Electric and Johnson and Johnson for backing President Obama's progressive agenda.

In an exclusive review for Whispers of their plan, FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe says: "Tea Party activists are willing to tackle progressive CEOs just as they tackled progressive politicians. Judging by the results of the midterm elections, progressive CEOs should buckle up, because Tea Party activists are going to give them a very bumpy ride."

I don't know whether the mention of Jackson was meant to evoke his corporate shakedowns or not, but the FreedomWorks efforts are going to be just as bogus as Jacksons'. The last thing FreedomWorks is going to do is demand corporate responsibility across the board; they just want to use their useful idiots in the teaparties to oppose one set of corporations.

At the same time, FreedomWorks and similar groups will be pushing for things such as reduced environmental regulations, something that will help the Koch family's Koch Industries, an energy company that's the second largest private corporation in the U.S.

Whether they'll be like Jackson and back off of corporations that pay a tribute isn't yet known, but considering that FreedomWorks and Dick Armey are all about the money it isn't something that would shock me. They're also going to be spreading the word through bloggers; if anyone finds any examples please leave a comment with a cite.

----------------------
[1] They're joined in the effort by the National Center for Public Policy Research, headed by Amy Ridenour. From this:

In 2002 ExxonMobil donated $30,000 for "educational activities" and a further $15,000 for general support.

Like I said, *some* corporations, not all.