They’ve been called the Tea Party and the Tea Party movement.  (I admit I’ve been guilty of falling for this fraud myself.)  But the more you investigate this group, the more it becomes apparent that they’re really just a figment of Republican imaginations.  Republican strategists, Fox News Channel and Dick Armey created this band of way-far-right lunatics to criticize President Obama without making the Republican candidates answer for the racist signs and epithets, and to distract the public from the horrendous failures of the Bush administration.

So far, it appears to be working.

Most of the media bought it hook, line and sinker.  They credited them for winning the Massachusetts Senate election, instead of rightfully pointing out the incompetence of the Democratic candidate.  The media has also credited them for purging moderate Republican incumbents.  But that phenomenon has been going on for decades.  And the teabaggers are anything but an independent, legitimate political party.  They have no platform.  No policies.  No organization.  Instead, the teabaggers are directed by Republican strategists, composed almost entirely of Republican voters, sponsored by American FreedomWorks (Dick Armey’s Republican organization) and Fox News, and led by the failed Republican Vice-Presidential candidate (and half-governor) Sarah Palin.  Their candidates even share voter registration booths with Republican candidates.

What about that sounds or looks like anything other than a front for the GOP?

So let’s stop over-reacting to them.  Let’s stop covering their racist, anti-everything demonstrations.  Let’s stop giving them the attention they crave.  And let’s start referring to them as what they really are.  A pathetic group of angry, racist and aging white people who are being manipulated by the Republican Party.