So, the Tea Partiers in Utah have thrown aside their long term incumbent Bob Bennett in favor of two relatively unknown rightwingers. But who are these guys, what would they do with Utah if given the chance, and what does it say about what the Tea Party would do with America if given the chance?
So let's take a look at Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater. Who are these guys? What do they believe in?
Mike Lee is 38 years old. He's a lawyer.
Lee, who served as former Gov. Jon Huntsman's general counsel and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, focused his campaign on saying the federal government has exceeded its constitutional authority.
He has never run for public office before and is best known outside political circles as an attorney fighting to allow EnergySolutions Inc. to import and dispose of foreign nuclear waste in Utah's west desert.
Dumping foreigners' nuclear waste on our homeland?
That's what he's best known for?
That's what the Tea Partiers want?
OMG?!? These people are insane.
But OK, Lee got outvoted in the convention by Bridgewater, if just barely. He's younger, a lawyer (Tea Partiers hate lawyers right?), maybe not the guy the Tea Partiers will go with in the end. So what about the more likely Tea Party candidate?
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Tim Bridgewater is 49 years old. He's a businessman.
Bridgewater grew up in a trailer park but eventually founded several small companies and became chairman and founder of Interlink Capital Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in emerging markets.
Oh yeah! Now we're talking. Trailer park. Self made businessman. Teabaggers are gonna eat this up and ask for seconds.
More:
Bridgewater is a consultant for Raser Technologies... He said he has tried to help Raser secure loan guarantees -- basically government backing for the loan -- from the U.S. Energy Department. And he helped Raser secure a grant of nearly $1 million from the U.S. Trade Development Authority for a proposed geothermal project in Indonesia.
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And he cofounded Ignite! Learning with Neil Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush, designed to create educational programs for children. The company reportedly made millions selling educational materials tailored to the No Child Left Behind requirements.
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it would be troubling to have someone who has so clearly positioned himself as the quote, business candidate, unquote, and champion of the free market to be profiting from the very big-government programs he has been condemning."
Bridgewater has said the companies he works with would be "foolish" not to take advantage of the low-cost capital available from the government.
Wait, what? Bridgewater is using US tax dollars to build projects in Indonesia?!!?? He's taking stimulus money and offshoring projects to Southeast Asia?!? I'm shocked (rolling eyes).
He's tied to the Bush family? He actually co-founded a company with one of them?!? I'm shocked, shocked to find out that the Tea Partiers want to elect another member of the Bush family cartel.
But it doesn't stop there. Let's go back to 2004.
WASHINGTON -- Utah congressional candidate Tim Bridgewater's latest business enterprise is Mor- America Capital Corp., a $50 million venture capital firm he and his partners recently relocated from Iowa to Salt Lake City.
Bridgewater and his partners spent $3.2 million to buy their interest in the firm, according to public filings. Nearly all of it, Bridgewater said, came from Benjamin Jiaravanon, a senior executive in Charoen Pokphand, Indonesia, and the son of Sumet Jiaravanon, chairman of the CP Group, a Thai-based conglomerate with diverse interests throughout Asia, including China.
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The Charoen Pokphand executives channeled the money to Bridgewater through two offshore corporate shells, Aleksin and Maze Industrial, based in the British Virgin Islands, the SEC filings show. The islands are among the world's most attractive tax havens due to favorable banking and confidentiality laws. "They're tax shelters. I think it's pretty straightforward from a business perspective," Bridgewater said of the companies. "It's a straightforward process for everyone from Ford Motor Co. to Pittsburgh Paint and Glass, that companies have holding companies for their foreign interests."
Whoa! What?!? Indonesia? Tax shelters? Energy projects?
Talk about business corruption and using your political office to pay back wealthy foreigners who helped you start your business, using US taxdollars!
More:
While working with Richards, Bridgewater first came into contact with the CP Group and was introduced to the Bush family, with whom he is close.
He has raised more than $100,000 for each of current President Bush's presidential campaigns, was part of the Bush 2000 transition team and helped raise money for former President Bush's presidential library.
Another Bushie? That's what the Tea Partiers are going to elect if given the chance?!?
Are they insane? Rhetorical question.
You want more? OK, I got more. Howabout this:
in late 2002, Ignite! [Bridgwater and Bush's company] laid off nearly half its work force, sending the jobs to Mexico.
So the Tea Partiers want to ship more of our jobs to Mexico? Why am I not surprised.
I think it's pretty clear. The Tea Partiers are dangerous, and deluded. They're just as corrupt and sold out to large foreign companies as their candidates are. Their entire movement was started by Rick Santelli, a Wall Street shill, after all... so why would any of us be surprised when they try to elect guys who ship our jobs to Mexico, use our tax dollars to enrich Indonesian businessmen, team up with the Bush family, and try to dump foreign nuclear waste on our homeland?
The Tea Party is nothing more than Bush family corruption and the continued sellout of our country to foreign interests... dressed up in ridiculous clothing and seething about there being a black guy in the White House who's still trying to clean up the mess these teabaggers left after they put their last corporate sellout in charge, ie GWB.
America has to put their foot down. No more of this stuff. It's gotta stop. These conservatives are doing the same things they did last time around. It's all just been remarketed. But it's still the same Chinese drywall. It's still the same British Petroleum.