READ the rants of Al Gerhart and it's easy to understand why the Sooner Tea Party has been such a failure.

Gerhart is co-founder of the local group, which was spawned when the tea party movement began nationwide a few years ago. But unlike that movement, which was conservative in nature but included Americans from across the political spectrum who were fed up with antics in Washington, D.C., the Gerhart-led Sooner Tea Party is a fringe group that considers those who don't share their views as fools or worse.

So no one who's followed Gerhart or the Sooner Tea Party should be surprised that Gerhart recently sent an email to state Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City, threatening to make Branan “the laughing stock of the Senate” if a bill in Branan's committee wasn't heard. The bill, which was approved in the House, would prohibit communities in Oklahoma from having anything to do with the United Nation's Agenda 21 plan. Agenda 21 is a nonbinding, voluntary action plan that deals with sustainable development. Gerhart sees this as the U.N.'s effort to strip away personal property rights.

“Get that bill heard or I will make sure you regret not doing it,” Gerhart said in his email last week. He added that “We will dig into your past, yoru (sic) family, your associates and once we start on you there will be no end to it. This is a promise.”