Fewer than 1 percent of all civil lawsuits in this country ever make it to a jury trial. But somehow, a bunch of angry tea party activists have managed to land one. Their target? A fellow tea partier.

Tea Party Patriots (TPP), one of the country’s largest tea party groups, has spent the last two years and thousands of dollars of its members’ donated funds suing Amy Kremer, now the chairwoman of Tea Party Express, another tea party group founded by a GOP political consulting firm in California. Kremer was one of the original TPP board members. She was there in the beginning and even registered the group’s domain names and set up its website. But in the fall of 2009, Kremer defied the rest of the board by participating in a Tea Party Express bus tour. So TPP kicked her off the board and then sued her, trying to wrest control over the group’s email list, its trademark and other intellectual property. The fight has been nasty and, well, sort of pointless.

The Atlanta Tea Party, which is associated with Jenny Beth Martin, recently filed a new lawsuit against Kremer and her boyfriend, who they allege collected money for a tea party event in 2009 but failed to turn it over to the group’s leaders. Now, they’re suing to get it back. Given all the litigation between these tea party factions, it’s entirely possible the lawsuits could outlive the movement itself.  Read more at motherjones.com

The Tea Party Patriots say that a defamation lawsuit filed against them is just part of continued “animosity” from Amy Kremer, now the chair of the Tea Party Express, who was ousted from the Tea Party Patriots in 2009.

In a statement Tuesday, the Tea Party Patriots’ attorneys said the group “denies all allegations in new suits, and vows a vigorous defense.”

Deborah Ausburn, who is representing Jenny Beth Martin, Lee Martin and the Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement that the suit is part of a continued grudge against the TPP by Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, who was ousted from the TPP Board of Directors in 2009.

“The new litigation is the next chapter in Ms. Kremer’s long-standing animosity against Tea Party Patriots,” Ausburn said. “As with her past claims, Tea Party Patriots, Inc., denies all allegations in the suits and will vigorously defend itself in the forum that Ms. Kremer has chosen. It is easier to make claims in a complaint than to prove those claims in court. Tea Party Patriots is confident of vindication at the end of the legal process.” Read more at tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

I can’t speak for the Tea Party. No one individual can because it is a movement not a structured organization - no dues or membership cards. There are Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation, TeaParty.net, and The American Tea Party. They are not all the same. The most prominent, the Tea Party Patriots, states its three core values as fiscal responsibility, free markets, and constitutionally limited government. Others add principles or beliefs such as individual freedom, personal responsibility, free speech, or our military. To be sure, there is a thread of Conservatism running through all of them and all save one state limited government to be a core value or principle.

Nowhere have I seen or heard a mission, policy, or value stated that is of a social or religious nature. The one possible exception, if you interpret broadly, is that Tea Party Nation states our rights to be “God given.” However, as this is in the Declaration of Independence, it can hardly be considered radical. The Tea Party Patriots definitively state, “As an organization we do not take stances on social issues.” The John Birch Society has. The Tea Partiers have no alliance with the John Birch Society although they share some of the same values and it appears JBS is attempting to ride the coattails of Tea Party popularity. Read more at www.tetonvalleynews.net

I can’t speak for the Tea Party. No one individual can because it is a movement not a structured organization - no dues or membership cards. There are Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation, TeaParty.net, and The American Tea Party. They are not all the same. The most prominent, the Tea Party Patriots, states its three core values as fiscal responsibility, free markets, and constitutionally limited government. Others add principles or beliefs such as individual freedom, personal responsibility, free speech, or our military. To be sure, there is a thread of Conservatism running through all of them and all save one state limited government to be a core value or principle.

Nowhere have I seen or heard a mission, policy, or value stated that is of a social or religious nature. The one possible exception, if you interpret broadly, is that Tea Party Nation states our rights to be “God given.” However, as this is in the Declaration of Independence, it can hardly be considered radical. The Tea Party Patriots definitively state, “As an organization we do not take stances on social issues.” The John Birch Society has. The Tea Partiers have no alliance with the John Birch Society although they share some of the same values and it appears JBS is attempting to ride the coattails of Tea Party popularity. Read more at www.tetonvalleynews.net

Without question, the tea party movement has more passion and energy than any other force in American politics today. But it also has no coherent central organization or plan, raising questions about its potential impact on the 2012 elections.

Tea party loyalists proudly concede that they’re a diffuse, diverse bunch who are bound by a commitment to smaller, less intrusive government. They abhor government authority that’s too big and dictatorial. They even recoil at the notion of any hierarchical structure controlling their own effort.

There are three prominent national organizations that pledge allegiance to the tea party – Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation and Tea Party Patriots – as well as dozens of local groups that may or may not be affiliated with any of them. Read more at www.thesunnews.com

The tea party movement is officially welcomed into the Republican mainstream on Monday as the first presidential debate sponsored by a tea party group takes place in Tampa, Fla.

Monday night’s nationally televised encounter at the Florida State Fairgrounds, co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN, is likely to highlight the anti-government, anti-spending issues dear to the insurgent conservative movement. The debate also is likely to feature stepped-up attacks on the new front-runner in the GOP primary race, Rick Perry.

The candidate most likely to take the offensive is Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who has been displaced as tea party Republicans’ favorite candidate by the Texas governor. And libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, will continue his verbal assault on Perry as a party-switching opportunist who once worked for Al Gore and has not been shy to use government power to suit his political purposes. Read more at www.beaumontenterprise.com

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke at a Tea Party Express event in Concord, New Hampshire Sunday but two words were missing from his speech: “tea” and “party.”

“I haven’t spent my whole life in politics. As a matter of fact, of the people running for office, I don’t know that there are many who have less years in politics than me,” Romney told the audience. “I spent four years as a governor; I joke that I didn’t inhale. I’m still a citizen, I’m still a business person.”

Not everyone was there to cheer on the former Massachusetts governor.

“Sitting right in front of the stage was ‘Flip Romney’ a man dressed in a dolphin costume who waved yellow flip-flops as Romney addressed the crowd of about 150 people,” according to The Washington Post. Read more at www.rawstory.com

More than 25 protesters turned out before a Tea Party Express rally this evening to protest not President Obama, but Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

“We do not need leadership that puts their finger up, sees which way the wind’s blowing and then all of a sudden changes their mind and goes back in that direction,” Tim Carter, a leader of the Lakes Region Tea Party in New Hampshire. “If you look at Mitt’s past voting record, I think that’s what you’re going to see.”

“When you come to less government, which the Tea Party stands for, how could you possibly explain that with Romneycare?” Carter said. “It doesn’t even compute. “ Read more at www.boston.com

DES MOINES - Its tandem of colorful buses was greeted by minuscule crowds this week in Iowa. But no matter. A triumphant mood prevailed among the merry band aboard the Tea Party Express, from Sharron Angle, a former Senate candidate from Nevada, down to the Tea Party rapper in baggy jeans.

The organizers of the rally are excited about their cosponsorship of a GOP primary debate this month, which will be hosted by “lamestream media’’ powerhouse CNN. They have drawn considerable media to the cross-country trip, which will tour through New England before heading to the debate site in Tampa. And Mitt Romney is scheduled to rendezvous with the Tea Party Express tomorrow in New Hampshire. It will mark the first appearance at a Tea Party rally of the candidate who has fashioned himself more as an establishment Republican, a former businessman who knows what ails the economy.

Yet even while racking up political successes, the Tea Party’s fractured leadership and increasingly negative public image are stunting its maturation as a cohesive political force within the GOP. News coverage this week focused less on the Tea Party’s goals of shrinking government and cutting taxes and more on internal squabbling. Read more at www.boston.com

Case in point: Mitt Romney’s candidacy is already dividing activists, and the sniping has already begun between Tea Party Express and Tea Party Patriots, two groups that have been at odds, on and off, since 2009.

“Whoever the Republican nominee is will have to have the support of the Tea Party movement, the entire Tea Party movement,” Tea Party Express co-chair Amy Kremer told “Fox News Sunday” this past weekend, even if that nominee turns out to be Mitt Romney.

With former House Majority Leader Dick Armey’s group FreedomWorks already opposing Romney, Tea Party Patriots fired back at Kremer in a press release specifically about her statement:

Make no mistake: There will be no one tea-party candidate in 2012. Different parts of the tea party movement will pick different sides, and there will be plenty of intra-tea-party in-fighting. Read more at www.theatlantic.com