What? No mainstream media covering this? Shocking!

[Jester]

The umbrella of 'tea party' is gigantic, and yes, even [in]famous people do stupid things, and the movement excises them and moves on.

Or, by the same uncharitable interpretation you seem to be applying elsewhere, the substratum of racism occasionally boils over into something politically embarrassing, forcing the movement to throw the offender under the bus - not because they didn't like what was being said, but because it was becoming a public liability.

For example, I like Victoria Jackson as a comedian, but she is not the best representative of the tea party movement.

Hey, I like UHF. If only Victoria Jackson wasn't a loon. Then again, I think the segment she represents are also pretty unhinged, so maybe that's appropriate.

I think even Sarah Palin has some admirable qualities, in that home spun, ranchers wife moxie sort of way. I don't know many women who'd be comfortable skinning a moose. I'm hoping she'll get more comfortable in public and shed the "fantastic plastic super smiley persona" she wears on camera, and learns to reveal her inner human.

You don't see it, do you? The "fantastic plastic super smiley persona" is the real Sarah Palin. She's an image-concious, career-minded, well-networked political animal. She's been in politics for her entire career. The moose skinnin' hockey mom rancher's wife rootin'-tootin' good 'ol gal is the public image. It's exactly the same as Bush was - the ranch-and-country-twang bit was the mask. The reality was something else, a pampered Yalie frat boy with daddy issues.

But people are so eager to believe the Great American Myth, that the frontier is alive and well, populated by the physically strong, the commonsensical, the morally pure, that the image sells instantly. If you want to succeed at American politics, you want to pretend you're from rural Nebraska, not Martha's Vineyard.

-Jester