Tea party leader peeved at Bachmann

A leading tea party activist says Michele Bachmann went off message when she signaled that a compromise can be struck to avoid a government shutdown.

Mark Meckler, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, took issue with Bachmann's comments during an interview Thursday night with Fox News. “Obviously, there was no agreement tonight, but that doesn't mean that there actually will be a shutdown or that there won't be agreement tomorrow,” Bachmann told host Greta Van Susteren. “I think there's a very good chance that there will be.”


But the tea party movement is taking a hard line on the need for deep spending cuts, and Meckler said Bachmann’s comments have his group’s membership “flipping out.”

“Her message was not consistent with the overall tea party message at that moment,” Meckler told POLITICO Friday afternoon, reiterating the need for Republicans to deliver the $100 billion in cuts they promised during the midterm election campaign.

“It certainly didn’t wipe her out with tea partiers, but people were not happy with her statements last night about potential compromise,” Meckler said of Bachmann, a tea party favorite.

A Bachmann aide didn't immediately comment, instead pointing to comments Bachmann posted Friday on the conservative website Redstate.

“Don’t get me wrong, cuts in spending are a move in the right direction," Bachmann wrote. "House Republicans have brought about a change from the spending binge of the last two years. But it’s time to face the facts. This is the 'small ball' battle that House leadership has chosen to engage. The current battle has devolved to an agenda that is almost too limited to warrant the kind of fighting we’re now seeing in Washington.”

Meckler and fellow Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said the organization won’t endorse in the Republican presidential primary, noting that the group’s members have yet to coalesce around any one potential challenger to President Barack Obama.