The Tea Party: Turning Pro

By Ambreen Ali
Roll Call Staff
May 9, 2011, Midnight

Tea party activists have long criticized President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda, and in doing so, they may have inadvertently created one of their own.

Several tea party leaders have found paid jobs for themselves in the movement as it evolves from an amateur grass-roots wave into a professional lobby.

Tennessee lawyer Judson Phillips became the latest to make the jump when he announced last week that he was devoting himself full time to Tea Party Nation, a change that means [b]drawing a salary he would only describe as “under six figures.â€