Dick Armey has resigned as chairman of Tea Party group FreedomWorks over unspecified principles.
Mother Jones (“Exclusive: Dick Armey Quits Tea Party Group in Split Over Direction“):
In a move not publicly announced, former Rep. Dick Armey, the folksy conservative leader, has resigned as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main political outfits of the conservative movement and an instrumental force within the tea party.
Armey, the former House majority leader who helped develop and promote the GOP’s Contract with America in the 1990s, tendered his resignation in an memo sent to Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks, on November 30. Mother Jones obtained the email on Monday, and Armey has confirmed he sent it. The tone of the memo suggests that this was not an amicable separation. (See Armey’s email below.) Armey demanded that he be paid until his contract ended on December 31; that FreedomWorks remove his name, image, or signature “from all its letters, print media, postings, web sites, videos, testimonials, endorsements, fund raising materials, and social media, including but not limited to Facebook and Twitter”; and that FreedomWorks deliver the copy of his official congressional portrait to his home in Texas.
“The top management team of FreedomWorks was taking a direction I thought was unproductive, and I thought it was time to move on with my life,” Armey tells Mother Jones. “At this point, I don’t want to get into the details. I just want to go on with my life.”
The Washington Post, POLITICO, New York magazine, and Raw Story all have reports on the story that cannibalize the MoJo report without additional insights. It’ll be interesting to see what led to this. Certainly, Armey has been the face of the organization, and arguably of the entire Tea Party movement, since it came into prominence.
