Rick Santelli Reacts to Tea Parties

Some are crediting CNBC's Rick Santelli for starting the whole Tea Party movement. His well publicized anti-tax rant on February 19th may well have sparked the movement which has grown pretty much without his help. He was asked about it today:

While Fox News has celebrated the Taxpayer Tea Party rallies and MSNBC has denigrated them, the impetus of the movement – CNBC and specifically Rick Santelli, its inspiration – had been conspicuously quiet about it.

But on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” April 15, co-host Joe Kernen asked Santelli what he thought of being a “cultural phenomenon.” That was the same show Santelli famously called out President Barack Obama for the unfairness of his housing bailout proposal on Feb. 19.

“A lot of articles about these tea parties,” Kernen said. “They all have your name in them, like you caused it. Are you actually attending any or are you just sort of got the idea going initially? What do you think? I mean, you’re like a cultural phenomenon at this point.”

Santelli didn’t shy away. He called the rallies American and said he was proud of what he inspired.

“I don’t know about cultural phenomenon, but I’ll tell you what,” Santelli said. “I think that this tea party phenomenon is steeped in American culture and steeped in American notion to get involved with what’s going on with our government. I haven’t organized. I’m going to have to work to pay my taxes, so I’m not going to be able to get away today. But, I have to tell you – I’m pretty proud of this.

He also said despite the claims from others in the media, including people at CNBC’s sister network MSNBC, calling the movement “Astroturf,” Santelli declared it a grassroots movement.

“I think from a grassroots standpoint, I’m sure some of the media out there is not going to peg it that way, but isn’t it about as American as it gets – for people to roll their strollers and make their signs and go voice their opinion about the direction of the country?” Santelli said. “Good, bad or indifferent – that’s a great thing. There’s not a lot of countries, of course, that afford their people that, that type of right. It’s a great thing.”

Santelli was probably wise to stay away from the head of the Tea Party parade. It gives that much more credibility to the idea that this movement sprang from grassroots efforts and not just from an attachment to a TV personality.