Hakeem Jeffries (Photo: Facebook)

Months into his first term, his short time in Washington D.C. has Congressman Hakeem Jeffries convinced the Tea Party is out of control.

"Every day I'm in Washington D.C., I'm focused on two things: battling the Tea Party and standing up for President Obama," Mr. Jeffries, a Democrat, said last night at a Brooklyn fundraiser for his successor, Assemblyman Walter Mosley. "The Tea Party folks, they're off the chain. From my perspective, the right thing to do for the country is to make sure we invest in our economy and we stand up for programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid--and stand up for the most vulnerable people among us."

Mr. Jeffries added that he would take the fight to the whole "crew" of Republican leadership, drawing wild applause from his supporters at the Crown Heights restaurant.

"As opposed to what the other side wants to do, which is to basically balance the budget on the backs of children and seniors, working families and the middle class," he said. "And despite what John Boehner says, despite Paul Ryan, despite that whole crew, we're not going to let it happen."

Since replacing the retired Edolphus Towns, Mr. Jeffries has been appointed to the Budget Committee and Judiciary Committee. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, one of the GOP's rising stars, chairs the Budget Committee and has aggressively pushed for spending cuts as a way to trigger economic growth.

Mr. Jeffries, needless to say, is no fan of that approach.

(Photo: YouTube)

Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney really wants you to associate incumbent Rep. Nan Hayworth with the Tea Party movement, at least if his television advertisements are any indication.

"Congresswoman Nan Hayworth's gone Tea Party on us, and it's not pretty: voting to end Medicare to pay for tax breaks for millionaires....like her," the narrator in Mr. Maloney's first commercial declared as constituents are shown sipping tea and gagging at the bitter taste. "For all her sugary promises at home, Congresswoman Hayworth abandoned us in Washington where she joined the Tea Party to defund Planned Parenthood."

And Mr. Maloney's latest ad managed to embrace the Tea Party messaging even more literally. Ms. Hayworth's photograph is displayed on a teacup, with "Rep. Hayworth TEA PARTY" written on the paper attached to the tea bag for anyone who might have missed the subtle visual. After each of Ms. Hayworth's conservative positions are announced, the cup cracks, ultimately shattering.

"Nan Hayworth works for Tea Party extremists, not Hudson Valley families," Mr. Maloney explains after the cup is reduced to shards.

The electoral battle between Ms. Hayworth and Mr. Maloney is considered among the most competitive congressional races in the state. For her part, Ms. Hayworth has worked to brand Mr. Maloney as a "carpetbagger" in her advertising.

Watch both of Mr. Maloney's ads below:

Barney Frank

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank may be retiring at the end of this term, but he still has plenty of fight left in him. Today, Mr. Frank sent out a fiery fundraising email slamming Tea Partiers on behalf of his colleague from Western New York, Louise Slaughter.

"These crazy tea party Republicans make logic disappear faster than Houdini. The worst part is that their crazy fat cat friends are literally throwing money at them to help them win so they can enact their cockamamie ideas," Mr. Frank wrote.

The Congressman also noted "their ads are getting slimier and shadier." Mr. Frank said he was motivated to fundraise for Ms. Slaughter because the Tea Partiers have "set their sights on her" and because she "has always been a fighter and a progressive who cares."

Ms. Slaughter is running against Maggie Brooks, a Republican and County Executive of Monroe County who describes "fiscal-responsibility" as her top priority.

Read Mr. Frank's entire email below:

"These crazy tea party Republicans make logic disappear faster than Houdini. The worst part is that their crazy fat cat friends are literally throwing money at them to help them win so they can enact their cockamamie ideas. Their ads are getting slimier and shadier, and right now they have set their sights on my fellow member Louise Slaughter.

That’s why I have made it a point to join forces to help my friend Louise, who has always been a fighter and a progressive who cares. I have set a goal to help raise $10,000 in urgent resources before her July end of month budget deadline so that she can have the resources she needs to fight back.

Contribute now before tomorrow’s rapid response ad buy deadline.

Onward,

Barney"

Lena Dunham (Photo: Twitter)

Lena Dunham, the star, creator and producer of HBO's hipster-ific series Girls, took to Twitter today to encourage her more than 200,000 followers to take on the Tea Party by "eat[ing] dope shit" at a series of dinners dedicated to raising money to defeat a "targeted list" of Tea Party incumbents picked by a liberal super PAC. The dinners are hosted by hosted by a group called Downtown For Democracy and Ms. Dunham's real-life best friend, Audrey Gelman (who uses the handle @grumplstilskin on Twitter and works as press secretary for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer) is a member of the Downtown For Democracy Board.

"Want to eat dope shit for a wonderful cause? Support D4D and my oldest best ‪#girl‬ @grumplstiltskin," Ms. Dunham tweeted along with a link to the dinner series.

The Downtown For Democracy dinners, aptly titled "Dining For Democracy," feature meals cooked by star chefs including Mario Batali and Momofoku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi. There will also be guest speakers and musicians including MSNBC host Alex Wagner and Michael Bloomberg's deputy mayor for government affairs, Howard Wolfson. Tickets require contributions ranging from $125 to $2,000.

Downtown for Democracy was founded in 2003 "to organize artists around the Bush/Kerry presidential election." During this election cycle, they're focused on defeating the "Tea Party 10," a list of Tea Party incumbents in Congress compiled by the liberal super PAC CREDO that includes, Allen West and Steve King.

(Photo: Wikimedia)

A new Siena Research Institute poll of voters in New York State shows that, while still high, Governor Andrew Cuomo's favorability ratings are at their lowest since he took office in 2011. The poll also showed President Barack Obama up 20 points over Mitt Romney in the Empire State, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand way ahead of her three potential opponents, displeasure with Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party, strong support for raising the minimum wage and high favorability ratings for the Legislature. 

According to the poll, Governor Cuomo is viewed favorably by 68 percent and unfavorably by 24 percent. His favorable rating was down five percent, tying his lowest rating ever on the poll, but still quite high.

“While 68 percent ties for the lowest favorable rating Cuomo has had since becoming governor, he continues to be viewed favorably by nearly three-quarters of Democrats and more than two-thirds of Republicans. He is viewed favorably by 73 percent of downstate voters and 61 percent of upstaters,” Siena's Steven Greenberg said. “And despite a small drop in his favorability rating this month, less than one-quarter of voters view Cuomo unfavorably.”

President Barack Obama also saw his favorable rating drop slightly with 60 percent of New York voters viewing him favorably compared to 58 percent in last months Siena poll. However, his unfavorability dropped to 38 percent from 39 and he still maintains a 20 point lead over the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. The poll shows Mr. Romney is viewed unfavorably by 57 percent of New Yorkers with just 33 percent having a favorable impression of him.

Senator Gillibrand beat her three rivals in the poll by more than a two-to-one margin. In a hypothetical matchup against Congressman Bob Turner, Ms. Gillibrand received 59 percent of the vote compared to 25 percent for Mr. Turner. George Maragos also polled at 25 percent against Ms. Gillibrand, though in a race against him she scored a slightly higher 60 percent. Attorney Wendy Long fared ever-so-slightly better with 26 percent compared to 60 for Ms. Gillibrand.

According to the poll, both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are viewed unfavorably by the majority of New Yorkers. The Tea Party's numbers rose a bit this month with 30 percent of voters viewing the movement favorably compared to 28 percent in November and 58 percent viewing it unfavorably compared to 60 percent in November. Occupy Wall Street favorable rating dropped from 45 percent in November to 38 percent. The unfavorable rating for Occupy Wall Street climbed from 44 percent in November to 52 percent.

The poll also showed over three-quarters of New Yorkers support raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50. Both houses of the State Legislature got their highest favorable ratings since Siena began polling on the Assembly and State Senate. The poll showed 42 percent of voters view the Assembly favorably and 46 percent have a favorable view of the State Senate. In spite of this, according to the poll, voters oppose giving State legislators a pay raise by a nearly three-to-one margin.

Occupiers and conservatives hanging out at Harry's Pub. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

For at least one evening last Friday night, Tea Partiers and other conservative activists mingled happily with members of the Occupy Wall Street movement over drinks in Harry’s Pub at Washington D.C.’s Marriott Wardman Park, where the annual Conservative Political Action Conference was being held. The Occupiers originally showed up to protest the conservative confab, but found themselves seated around a table with several CPAC attendees including Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the controversial vigilante immigration enforcement group, the Minuteman Project.

“I've always felt that there was a common thread with their grievance and the grievance of everyday Republicans, Democrats, Independents, many of us,” Mr. Gilchrist told The Politicker. “So many of us are frustrated with our federal government.”

The strange cocktail hour began after Mr. Gilchrist led some of his fellow of conservative conference-goers to visit the Occupiers protesting CPAC outside the hotel.

“I just invited a group of about six of us to go down and engage in discourse with the Occupy Wall Street and issued a warning, ‘Look, if it gets hostile, we back off and we leave. If law enforcement comes in and says, ‘Get away from them, because it’ll create conflict and riot,’ we will obey law enforcement,” Mr. Gilchrist said. “We walked down there and there was not one shred of hostility towards us. I think they were surprised that we would come into their ranks.”

Mr. Gilchrist and his band of conservative activists, which included his “bodyguard” Edwin Williams and TeaParty.org Executive Director Stephen Eichler, ended up convincing several of the Occupiers to join them at the bar for food, drinks and discourse. At the bar, they ran into a bearded, tattooed Occupier who only gave his name as “James” and said he took refuge in Harry’s Pub after hotel security threatened to kick him out for wandering the lobby. In the end, the group included about six conservatives and six Occupiers.

“At this table, there are Republican activists, the founder of the Minutemen, and there are several principled Occupiers and we are all having a peaceable, wonderful, friendly conversation about what’s wrong with this country,” James said.

Hudson Flynt, a Tea Party activist and author of a book called Reconquer America, figured he and the others at the table had “more than 70 percent of common ground.”

“Those things where we disagree, we are getting into a deeper discussion to find out where we can actually come to an agreement on our understanding,” Mr. Flynt said.

Despite these good natured assessments of the conversation, there were definitely some differences of opinion around the table at Harry’s.

“The disagreements are not about what the issues are or the problems are, it’s about how to fix the problems,” said Johnny Mandracchia, an Occupy protestor from Northern Virginia.

Jeffrey Gayner, Chairman of Americans for Sovereignty, concurred.

“There’s the commonality of the distrust of authority and government, I think there’s a huge commonality there, but it’s just a matter of, our distrust is more of the government screwing up the situation rather than the corporations,” Mr. Gayner said.

Occupiers and Tea Partiers are often linked together by the media, but in the past, members of both groups have aggressively disavowed any similarities. At CPAC, the collision between the groups was hardly harmonious. Occupy protesters disrupted several events, including Ms. Palin’s keynote speech and one of the panels was a discussion entitled “Taking Back Wall Street: The Tea Party Vs. Occupy Wall Street” where conservative pundit Kevin Jackson criticized the Occupiers as “irrelevant” and “nutjobs” and other panelists accused them of being unsanitary plants from sinister left wing organizations.

However, for those at Harry’s, who spent over four hours drinking together, they left the convention with a greater understanding of their rivals from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

“Build a bridge and you’d be amazed at how their grievances are the same as our grievances,” Mr. Gilchrist said.

Joe The Plumber (Photo: Getty)

WASHINGTON -- As demonstrators affiliated with Occupy Wall Street protested on the street outside the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, The Politicker spotted 2008 election star, Tea Party activist and Ohio Congressional candidate Samuel "Joe The Plumber" Wurzelbacher standing in front of the Mariott Wardman Park hotel where the conference is being held.

"This is America and they're allowed to protest, everybody is," Mr. Wurzelbacher said.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he didn't step outside the hotel to see the demonstrators.

"I just came out just to catch a breath of fresh air real quick and head back in."

Though Mr. Wurzelbacher supports the Occupiers right to protest, he said they should follow the example of the Tea Party movement and stay within the limits of the law.

"I do believe, you know, like the Tea Parties and whatnot, they definitely should exercise getting the permits that are required, following the laws that are in place," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "I don't think anybody gets any special treatment."

President Barack Obama (Getty)

President Barack Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, emailed supporters shortly before three this morning asking for volunteers and responding to Mitt Romney's extremely narrow victory in the Iowa Caucus. Mr. Messina mocked Mr. Romney for spending "seven years" campaigning in Iowa, described the Republican party as leaderless and predicted the eventual nominee would be someone who has "embraced" the Tea Party. "GOP voters there couldn't decisively get behind anyone," Mr. Messina wrote.

Mr. Messina called the vote a "clear victory" for the "extremist Tea party agenda:"

"No matter who the Republicans nominate, we'll be running against someone who has embraced that agenda in order to win -- vowing to let Wall Street write its own rules, end Medicare as we know it, roll back gay rights, leave the troops in Iraq indefinitely, restrict a woman's right to choose, and gut Social Security to pay for more tax cuts for millionaires and corporations."

Going forward, Mr. Messina forecast the Republicans will go on a negative ad buying binge fueled by "unprecedented spending from outside groups funded by corporations and anonymous donors."

"These groups will turn their fire even more directly on us in the weeks ahead to prove that their candidate is the most anti-Obama," Mr. Messina wrote. "This race is officially on -- and if we want to win, the only way is to out-organize them on the ground."

Though Mr. Messina is confident the Obama campaign will be "prepared" if Mr. Romney wins the nomination, he isn't sure whether the former Massachusetts governor has what it takes.

"Many observers still think Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee," Mr. Messina wrote. "But it's curious that no one can really explain how, when or why the 70-plus percent of Republicans saying in polls and in Iowa that Mitt Romney's not their candidate will suddenly come around."

Mr. Messina is also sure whoever emerges victorious in the Republican race will have a dangerous far right platform.

"So the path ahead for Romney -- or whichever of the Republican candidates is going to emerge from this process -- is sadly and starkly very clear: to run even further to the extreme right, and make even more dangerous promises that threaten not only the progress we've made but the fundamental fabric of American society," Mr. Messina wrote.

Despite his doubts about Mr. Romney, Mr, Messina believes "candidates who take these extreme positions can, in the right circumstances, win not only a primary but also a general election in just about any state."

The Obama campaign email then took a dramatic turn.

"Watching the circus on TV, it's tempting to think it's almost funny -- but this is not a joke. We've got to be ready. What you decide to do next will determine which kind of politics wins this election," Mr. Messina wrote.

Mr. Messina closed his email on an informal note, signing off as simply "Messina."

Donald Trump, Republican kingmaker. (Getty)

Republican frontrunner du jour Newt Gingrich will meet with real estate mogul, reality star and onetime presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday. Mr. Trump has declared his intent to make an endorsement in the race and has held similar meetings with Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann.

Throughout the spring, Mr. Trump flirted with the possibility of a White House bid. He spent some time atop the polls before ultimately deciding not to run in May. Since then, Mr. Trump has declared his intent to endorse one of the Republican candidates. Ms. Bachmann recently floated his name as a possible running mate in the (increasingly unlikely) event she wins the nomination.

Mr. Gingrich's swing through New York will also include a Tea Party-sponsored town hall in Nicotra's Ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn in Staten Island Saturday afternoon. Mr. Trump is set to moderate a Republican presidential debate hosted by the conservative news site Newsmax and Ion Television in Iowa December 27.

(Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father in law of Jared Kushner, the owner of Observer Media Group)

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones (Photo: RichmondGov.com)

A Tea Party group in Richmond, Virginia is being audited after it accused the local mayor of giving preferential treatment to the local Occupy movement. They say the audit is "an obvious attempt to intimidate and harass us." 

Roughly two weeks ago, Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told the Richmond Times-Dispatch her group sent Mayor Dwight C. Jones an invoice for about $10,000 it paid the city to hold three Tax Day rallies in a local park. Occupy Richmond protesters have been using the park without paying since October 15. Yesterday, Ms. Owens wrote a blog post for Andrew Breitbart's conservative news site BigGovernment.com accusing the mayor of punishing her group for making a stink.

"This audit is an obvious attempt to intimidate and harass us for standing up against the unfair treatment and discrimination against our Tea Party," Ms. Owens wrote.

Richmond Tea Party organizers scheduled their rallies with the city and raised funds to cover costs including park rental, police protection and port-o-potties. Ms. Owens told the Times Dispatch Occupiers have used the same park illegally and free of charge.

"The Tea Party keeps being compared to the occupiers. Well, in the way we're treated, there's no comparison. It's like a slap in the face," Ms. Owners said.

Occupy Wall Street protests around the country have cost cities an estimated $13 million.