Has the tea party movement...

...jumped the shark? (I love that expression.) In the Daily Beast today, Samuel Jacobs writes that:

600 members of disparate groups from across the country prepare to descend next month on Nashville for the first National Tea Party Convention. The group’s big coming-out party is threatened by a rash of infighting, finger-pointing and paranoia.

I imagine that organizing nihilists could be a little like herding cats.

The stars of the movement, such as they are, will be out: Going Rogue author, former GOP vice-presidential nominee, and newly minted Fox News contributor Sarah Palin; Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann; and prominent birther Joseph Farah, the editor of WorldNetDaily, among them.

Not exactly a Who's Who of serious people, is it?

But a number of Tea Party activists recoil at the very idea that their movement should have stars—and are steering clear because they don’t want to follow any one leader. And FreedomWorks, the nonprofit headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey—and the group that helped foster the early growth and development of the Tea Party insurgency—has decided to stay away.

Face it, without Astroturfers like Dick Armey, the whole movement is likely to whither away.

Stay tuned.