[Guest post by DRJ]

Reporting from a Wisconsin coffee party, Phil Boehmke notices there were no minorities but a novel conspiracy theory: “I heard a woman talking about how the Oil Companies were spreading lies about the Prius because it was too fuel efficient!”

There were also arts and crafts:

“Finally the end was in sight. Emails were collected and initial plans for another meeting were discussed, then each group was to make a poster (it is always a relief when there is an artist in the group) for the 1st coffee party picture.”

Plus duplicate “grassroots” press releases from Chicago and Kansas City.

H/T Instapundit.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Moe Lane explains the difference between the Tea Party and the Coffee Party.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Nevadan Jon Scott Ashjian has filed as a Tea Party candidate seeking the seat of Senator Harry Reid. Some Nevada Republicans fear he may be a Tea Party fake:

“It’s a grass-roots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Ask Republicans in Nevada. Some are accusing Jon Scott Ashjian, a new Tea Party candidate running for U.S. Senate, of being a fake. The allegation? He was put in the race by agents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to siphon votes from the GOP.

“No doubt about it,” says Danny Tarkanian, one of the many Republican Senate candidates hoping to challenge Reid in November.

“Nobody in the Tea Party knows who he is. He didn’t know any of the principles of the Tea Party,” Tarkanian tells CNN.”

Ashjian’s presence in the race concerns Republicans because a recent Nevada poll shows Reid would win with a Tea Party candidate in the race:

“It’s clear why Lowden and Tarkanian would be concerned. A recent poll conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicates Lowden and Tarkanian each beating Reid in one-on-one hypothetical general election matchups. But add a Tea Party candidate to the ballot, and that siphons off enough conservative votes to give Reid a narrow victory. According to the survey, Reid would grab 36 percent of the vote, the Republican candidate 32 percent and the Tea Party candidate 18 percent in a possible three-way showdown.

So the conspiracy theories abound from Tea Party activists and worried Republicans: Ashjian’s never attended Tea Party rallies; he hasn’t coordinated with local organizers; the secretary of his Tea Party of Nevada, Barry Levinson, is a registered Democrat. Levinson said, “I vote the person, not the party” and calls the accusations “political garbage.”

Real or not, Ashjian’s campaign is getting off to a rocky start due to complaints about his business and reports of a pending lien, although he got a nice write-up in the Reid-friendly Las Vegas Sun.

The Nevada News Bureau also points out an unfortunate but comic oversight: Ashjian’s campaign URL apparently belongs to someone who isn’t a fan.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The Instapundit points out an Investors’ Business Daily post entitled “Club Med: Are Dems Using Medicare Payments To Silence Doctors?” The post speculates the Democrats have continued the “doc fix” to delay a 21% cut in doctors’ reimbursement rates and keep the AMA on board until the vote on Obama’s health care reform.

Do most AMA-affiliated doctors know their reimbursement rates are scheduled for cuts? I assume they do, although most of the ones I know work in institutions and spend the bulk of their time on other issues. They have staff to handle reimbursements and billing matters, and sometimes they don’t focus on money until their revenues decline.

These doctors are paid to worry about the problem in front of them, diagnose the likely cause, and prescribe the treatment most likely to solve the problem. In my experience, that means they are less likely to worry about tomorrow’s problems today. If so, the Democrats may be using that to their advantage.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The sex scandals continue regarding former Democratic Congressman Eric Massa:

“In a widely anticipated interview on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show Tuesday night, Massa acknowledged that he had “groped” and “tickled” a male staffer at the congressman’s 50th birthday party.

He also said he’d used rough language when he shouldn’t have and that he had jokingly told a male staffer at a wedding reception that he’d rather have sex with him than with one of the bridesmaids.

But, Massa told Beck, “I did nothing sexual.”

Is this a good time to mention that adults disagree on the definition of sex?

H/T Sara O.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Chief Justice John Roberts commented today on President Obama’s attack on the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address:

“Responding to a University of Alabama law student’s question, Roberts said anyone was free to criticize the court, and some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.

“So I have no problems with that,” he said. “On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court – according the requirements of protocol – has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”

Roberts concluded he’s not sure justices should attend the speeches, saying: “I’m not sure why we’re there.”

As props for Obama to score points?

– DRJ