Dick Armey– the former House majority leader who made a pile of money working for a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm before becoming a leader of the tea party movement — said at the National Press Club this week that the problem with Democrats and other “people here who do not cherish America the way we do” is that “they did not read the Federalist Papers,” Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reported. But Armey became flummoxed when a reporter asked him how the Federalist Papers could be an inspiration for the tea party, when their principal author, Alexander Hamilton, was widely regarded then and now as an advocate of a strong central government. Armey also contended that tea party patriots are “not kooky birds,” though he later conceded that some “fruitcakes” attend tea party events. “When you have a big tent like this,” he said, “you have some kooky birds.”
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