Tea Party Movement Lacks Unity
Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's speech at the Tea Party Nation convention on Saturday attacted a lot of attention for the movement. But what the young Tea Party movement may have in popularity, it lacks in unity.
On "Washington Unplugged" Monday, a co-founder of one branch of the movement said she did not even watch Palin's speech Saturday.
"With Tea Party Patriots we have three core values: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets," Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, explained to moderator John Dickerson.
Her group voiced concern over the more than $500 entrance fee the Tea Party Nation charged this weekend to host Palin, who's speaking fee was reported to be $100,000. Tea Party Nation said the convention hosted by a different "tea party" organization veered away from the core values of the grassroots movement.
Max Pappas, the vice president of Freedom Works -- which supports various activities across the Tea Party spectrum -- said supporting individual candidates and maintaining the organic grassroots origin is not "mutually exclusive."
"I think you are going to see the activists who have risen up over the last few months to take part in what is going on, a lot of them saying they have never done anything like this before. They can influence members of their own party," through groundwork Pappas explained. "But then they can also get involved in electoral politics."
Both Martin and Pappas agreed that the Senate race in Massachusetts was a good example of activists turning grassroots motivation into political change.
Watch the full interview above.
Coverage of Sarah Palin's Tea Party Speech:
Palin: I'd Run for President If It's Right for U.S.
Palin Says Republican Party Should Absorb the Tea Party
Palin: "America is Ready for Another Revolution"
"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.