There's one great perk for leaving a high-profile job in Washington: you don't have to lie any more about your motivations.
Dick Armey, who's armed-standoff severance negotiations with Koch subsidiary Freedom Works was the talk of the marble town this month, has earned, with his graceless departure, that perk.
And, now that he's free to speak, we learn that speech isn't free. Not his, at least.
In an interview with ABCNews' Shusannah Walshe "as he was winding down his Wii Fit workout," Armey revealed deep philosophical fissures in the Tea Party cheerleading organization.
Oh, yeah, and the money, too.
"I can't stay here (FreedomWorks), I can't work with people like this, and I can't afford to leave with empty pockets," Armey said.
He said his choice was to put in "10 years of hard labor" to win control of FreedomWorks when [Cancer Treatment Center's president] Stephenson said to him, "'Instead of hard labor, how about you never have to work again forever?' How many people are going to have trouble of making that choice at the age of 72?"
As the press has noted, Armey's greatest philosophical difference was with the organization's president, Matt Kibbe, who Armey accuses of using Freedom Works personnel for researching and promoting his own book then later refusing to cut the organization in on the back end.
And, if there's one thing that can destroy a movement's hard-won integrity and reputation, it's the appearance that the people at the top are really just cheap grifters milking the gullible rubes for personal gain.
Right, Mr. Armey?