"Only dead fish go with the flow ... and spend $549 to hear me ramble on like Robert Plant and shell out $65 bucks on a Tea Party hoody."*
Sarah Palin
* I may have embellished that quote a bit. It is off the top of my head, I remembered it the best I could.

For an old fashioned little girl tea parties, doting mums spent a few bucks on toy (fake) china tea set. And a couple dollars on tea, milk and sugar. Maybe $3 bucks for fancy white laced gloves. All in all, a bargain for a classy, good time.

The grown up right wing tea parties aren't adhering this bargain tradition. In fact, this past weekend, a major Tea Party event was an all-out capitalistic orgy of money over fist.

In Nashville, angry white folks paid for transportation and overpriced food, had to stay at the sprawling Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, negotiate all the definitely for-profit vendors hawking all manner of tacky kitsch. Unlimited numbers of bad taste T-shirts were available as well as tea-bag necklace for $89.99. It's like swap meet bargains.

You could get into the convention for $349. if you want to hear Sarah Palin attempt to speak in coherent sentences, that's a total of $549. Didn't this start as a grass roots, non-profit demonstration where one if the battle cries was "spending is out of control?" Originally, the only real cost was poster-board and giant ink markers to draw Hitler mustaches on the President. I think Kinkos made most of the money with the original protests. "How big can you make this concentration camp picture?" As for Mrs. Palin, $549 dollars, really? I know the organizers had to jack up prices to cover you 100 large speaking fee, but come one. (It's what best for Alaska, apparently.) Neither Bruce Springsteen or Paul McCartney charge $549 for a concert, And Paul is going to sing "Yesterday."

Fill up the shark tank, chum the waters and have Fonzie rev up his motorcycle, the Tea Parties are ready to jump the shark...

We kid, but Sarah Palin getting caught with crib notes in her hand was comedy gold.