Some Republicans dub Nevada Tea Party candidate a fake

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

CNN) -- It's a grass-roots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Ask Republicans in Nevada. Some are accusing Jon Scott Ashjian, a new Tea Party candidate running for U.S. Senate, of being a fake. The allegation? He was put in the race by agents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to siphon votes from the GOP.

"No doubt about it," says Danny Tarkanian, one of the many Republican Senate candidates hoping to challenge Reid in November.

"Nobody in the Tea Party knows who he is. He didn't know any of the principles of the Tea Party," Tarkanian tells CNN.

Tarkanian even accuses "Harry Reid's staff, campaign, whatever" of picking Ashjian because he's Armenian, as is Tarkanian. He explains, "They know the Armenians are very close, they'll vote for each other."

As for Reid, an aide dismisses the accusations. As does Reid, who says he's never met Ashjian or "anyone in his family." Reid tells CNN, "I think there are too many conspiratorialists in the world today. This is a free country."

..the conspiracy theories abound from Tea Party activists and worried Republicans: Ashjian's never attended Tea Party rallies; he hasn't coordinated with local organizers; the secretary of his Tea Party of Nevada, Barry Levinson, is a registered Democrat. Levinson said, "I vote the person, not the party" and calls the accusations "political garbage."

But to critics, it's all proof that Ashjian is, in the words of Nevada Tea Party activist and blogger Ned Barrett, running a "false flag operation."

A spokesman for Tea Party Express, a national Tea Party group that is encouraging efforts to defeat Reid at the ballot box in November, says it does not view Ashjian as a serious candidate.

They say he's not speaking at either of their two rallies in Nevada on March 27, when they kick off their third Tea Party cross-country caravan with events in Searchlight (Reid's hometown) and Las Vegas, but they say he's welcome to attend.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/10/tea.party.nevada/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The Tea Party ought to run candidates in every state and district against the GOP candidate. What a fest.