The Tea Party was on the minds of rich, powerful white men yesterday as both President Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg found time to pass along their opinions of the group.
Bloomberg’s a fan, he said on the radio yesterday. “It’s a bunch of people getting involved in government, in politics, that is good for the country,” he said. “It stirs the pot up.” Could the serial party-switcher be contemplating a run on the Tea Party ticket? Probably not.
President Clinton’s take on the Tea Party was a little less charitable. While Clinton thinks “the Tea Party movement can be a healthy thing if they are making us justify every dollar of taxes we raise and every dollar of money we’ve spent,” he’s a little afraid. Clinton compared the anger coming from Tea Party rallies to the attitudes that led to Timothy McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma City. “We see some of that today,” he said. And even if the Tea Party’s motives are good and peaceful, he said, “when you get mad, sometimes you end up producing the exact opposite result of what you say you are for.”
Former President Clinton: Tea Party OK, but anti-Obama rage may inspire another Oklahoma bombing [NYDN]
Mayor Bloomberg gives thumbs up to conservative Tea Party movement [NYDN]
