I guess no matter how badly these so-called "tea party" leaders behave, we won't see them kicked off the air any time soon. Case in point: Wingnut Judson Phillips, CEO of Tea Party Nation, who as we've noted here is prone to misogynistic attacks on female Democrats, has had some trouble paying his group's hotel bills and who wants President Obama to prove that he doesn’t smoke crack and have gay sex. What a guy. But here he was on MSNBC this Thursday, being allowed to pretend he doesn't know Republicans won the House due to gerrymandering, and throwing both Boehner and Romney under the bus.

Thomas Roberts might be good when it comes to LGBT issues (which he actually cares about), but he's fairly useless when it comes to holding most of his guests' feet to the fire on anything else. This interview was just another example of that.

Naturally, Phillips was demanding that John Boehner not give an inch on these "fiscal cliff" negotiations and that we cut spending to take care of our deficit. I agree with him on getting rid of government waste, but I suspect he and I might have very different ideas about what amounts to "wasteful spending." Republicans always think "waste" equals gutting our social safety nets - he was short on specifics and wasn't asked to clarify.

Phillips was also happy to make excuses for why Republicans lost the presidential election and threw Romney right under the bus --and even backed over him a couple of times: Tea Party Leader: Romney Was ‘The Worst Candidate In History’:

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips on Thursday disputed that President Obama claimed a mandate in November's election, arguing that his re-election victory came over "the worst candidate in history in Mitt Romney." "You know, Obama ran on the fact he was going to raise taxes, the Republicans put up the worst candidate in history in Mitt Romney, yet Obama allegedly has this mandate," Phillips said during an appearance on MSNBC. "Well, why did Republicans keep the House if Obama has this great mandate? People don't want their taxes going up. What people do want is spending cuts."

If Romney was the "worst candidate" ever, what does that say about the rest of the wingnuts he was running against in their primary? He would have been a bad candidate already, but Phillips and his ilk along with the rest of the GOP base pushing him to the right helped to assure his fate. He alienated every group out there other than crusty old white men and the millionaires paying his tab, and he paid dearly for it later.

It's always amusing to watch these guys come on the air and complain about a problem they helped create. It's too bad they're not called out for it and asked about who is funding these AstroTurf groups that they represent when they're allowed on the air.