Sneaky Dems Set Up 'Grassroots' Anti-Tea Party Groups

Gee, never saw this coming. It's a safe bet you'll see only one electronic media outlet reporting this scam.

A seemingly grassroots organization that's mounted an online campaign to counter the tea party movement is actually the front end of an elaborate scheme that funnels funds -- including sizable labor union contributions -- through the offices of a prominent Democratic party lawyer.

A Web site popped up in January dedicated to preventing the tea party's "radical" and "dangerous" ideas from "gaining legislative traction," targeting GOP candidates in Illinois for the firing squad.

"This movement is a fad," proclaims TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, which was established by the American Public Policy Center (APPC), a D.C.-based campaign shop that few people have ever heard of.

But a close look reveals the APPC's place in a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

These clumsy goons may have been able to get away with something like this in years past, but people are on to them.

The most recent backers of the Patriot Majority and Patriot Majority West, which helped fund the APPC and thus the Tea Party site, form a veritable Who's Who of the country's top labor unions: the Service Employees International Union, Change to Win, the Communications Workers of America, the National Education Association, the Teamsters Union, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union and others besides.

But by far the largest donations have come from a collection of unionized government workers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) -- which in 2008 alone donated $5.8 million to Patriot Majority and another $4.1 million to Patriot Majority Midwest.

Using this arrangement, Varoga and Rakis are managing what NPR called a "never-ending pot of union money" that they dispense among the 527s they run, which in turn pay for ads in hotly contested election districts.

That means that taxpayer dollars, sent up as union dues, have been going to fund a host of Democratic causes and help quash the tea party movement.

What's more, Varoga and Rakis are not actually present in Suite 1102. That is the office of their lawyer, Joseph Sandler, a longtime general counsel to the Democratic National Committee.

Sandler, whose firm and trust account raked in over $500,000 in Democratic party money in 2009 alone, told Fox News that there was nothing irregular in their setup.

Perhaps not irregular, but devious nonetheless.

Considering they pumped money into Martha Coakley's losing Senate bid in Massachusetts it doesn't appear the public is buying their so-called "patriotism" that's funded by the Democrat machine. Tha Patriot Majority also has ties to failed Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick dating back to 2006.

So we're supposed to believe they were formed in opposition to the tea parties, yet they date back to at least 2006. Not only that, the guy in charge i=of the group used to work for Dingy Harry.

Varoga, a Texas-based Democratic strategist, was in charge of opposition research for Johnston during Johnston’s failed 1996 run for Congress. A former communications director for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Varoga was slammed for using bogus newspaper headlines in an attack ad during a 1992 state Senate race in Missouri.

Jim Hoft was on to them a couple of weeks ago.