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  Bachmann cancels Tea Party appearance
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Jan 28, 2010 03:08pm
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CategoryBlog Entry
MediaNewspaper - Star Tribune, The (Minneapolis - St. Paul)
News DateThursday, January 28, 2010 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionPosted by Kevin Diaz
Last update: January 28, 2010 - 12:14 PM

Rep. Michele Bachmann has become the latest high-profile conservative to bag the rapidly unraveling Tea Party Convention in Nashville next week.

The Minnesota Republican, who has become something of a heroine of the Tea Party movement, decided Thursday morning that she is cancelling her appearance at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel next Friday, where she was scheduled to be a breakfast speaker.

Bachmann’s office cited the same concerns that other Tea Party activists have voiced about the first-of-its-kind national gathering: namely, the for-profit model of organizer Judson Phillips, a self-described “small town lawyer” with a history of financial problems.

Phillips has announced that the $549-a-head convention featuring Sarah Palin is sold out. But Tea Party critics and allies alike have been asking questions about what Phillips plans to do with the money. Concrete answers have been in short supply, and in the end it looked like too big a risk for any public office holder.

“We’re out,” said Bachmann spokesman Dave Dziok. “It comes down to conflicting advice as to how these profits are going to be used after the fact. We’d rather err on the side of caution than do it and find out it’s improper... with somebody saying ‘they’re using the money from an event you were at to support this and this,’ which comes as a direct conflict with what you’re doing as a member of Congress.”

One of the only other elected officials scheduled to appear, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also has backed out, citing similar concerns.
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