It’s a little breath-taking to realize that Dick Armey tried to keep control of the tea party’s money machine, Freedom Works, by marching into the office with a gun. But that’s what happened.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news. …WaPo

In the end, Armey got the boot (nice bruise medicine amounting to $8 million). Standing behind a dis-Armeyed Freedom Works was yet another quiet gazillionaire, Richard Stephenson, a Randian libertarian. Freedom Works, depleted, broken, was hauled back to life.

Big money makes things whole again. The story is a case study in how Citizens United works for the, um, common good. And the FEC is watching.

Cross-posted from Prairie Weather

NOTE FROM JG: Armey should realize that in romance and running American political organizations the lyrics of this song still hold:

gun graphic via shutterstock.com