Did you think it started in some Alabama backwater or was conceived in the mind of a former Alaska governor?

No, thank Chicago. The Sun-Times gives well-deserved recognition of the role that Rick Santelli, the CNBC reporter who reports from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile had in starting the Tea Party.

A interesting and well-written story Abdon M. Pallasch.

Below is the Santelli "rant." Check out the White House reaction and the unusual attack on a named journalist by Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs. And be sure to watch NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer brown nose Obama in attacking Santelli. You wouldn't know from this that Lauer is a journalist.