Ron Paul is the Tea Party Godfather?

Cute little trick played by the Associated Press today, sending out a story on gadfly Ron Paul and headlining it Tea Party godfather Ron Paul declares 2012 bid. The media knows the guy is a crank, so why not tie him around the necks of tea partiers, who they go out of their way to impugn on a daily basis.

So the story then gets picked up worldwide and those not paying attention associate Paul with your rank and file tea party members.

Paul, a native of Pittsburgh, is both a spiritual father and actual father in the Tea Party movement. His son, Tea Party darling Rand Paul, won a Senate seat in Kentucky last year and has become an ardent proponent of spending cuts and smaller government.

As far back as 2007, long before people were evoking the fabled Boston Tea Party to symbolize their disgust with an overtaxing central government, Ron Paul was hosting a "Tea Party Fundraiser" aboard a shrimp boat near Galveston.

Now while it's true Rand Paul garnered a lot of support from tea partiers, I see little evidence his father is a mainstream conservative, where it's safe to say a solid majority of tea partiers would see themselves. The movement that sprung up in 2009 came from Americans who recoiled at the explosion of the federal government and debt, following on the heels of the stimulus. I don't recall seeing Ron Paul out leading any rallies since that time, so calling him the father of the movement is either a demonstration of blind ignorance or being intentionally disingenuous.