The goals of the Tea Party movement—lower taxes, decreased spending, responsible government—are not possible with open borders and immigration anarchy.

Plus, polls consistently show that the American people want immigration to be legal, controlled and reduced.

Anyway, who elected open-borders Beltway suit Dick Armey to be the King of Tea? The MSM loves to position him as the big leader, but when has he put himself in front of actual Tea Party people? The guy is a craven parasite who thinks he can ride grassroots patriots to a position of power, while he protects his fat cat pals in the process.

Former Republican House leader Dick Armey said staunch anti-immigration opponents such as Rep. Tom Tancredo are destructive to Republicans " and are alienating a "natural" constituency that could help the party win elections.

"Who in the Republican Party was the genius that said that now that we have identified the fastest-growing voting demographic in America, let's go out and alienate them?" Armey said, referencing Hispanics, during a luncheon in Washington at the National Press Club.

"When I was the majority leader, I saw to it that Tom Tancredo did not get on the stage because I saw how destructive he was," Armey said of the Colorado congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate known for his opposition to illegal immigration.

Armey said "this is a nation of immigrants" and "if you love America, love freedom" and if you will work and pay taxes, you should be welcome in the country.[Dick Armey: Tom Tancredo is "destructive" to Republicans on immigration, March 16, 2010]

That's the innumerate, anti-borders position of many libertarians. Armey and his ilk think whoever wants to enter America should be permitted. This is a reversal of the traditional view that the American people should decide which and how many others are allowed the privilege of living in the United States.

The open-border view also ignores the skyrocketing world population (now closing in on 7 billion), where 5 billion live in nations poorer than Mexico.

In fact, to Armey the biggest problem is not being able to admit foreigners fast enough, as he explained to rock-dumb Charlie Rose.

ARMEY: I tell you, I was for example not really happy to see Tom Tancredo calling himself a tea party guy.

ROSE: Because?

ARMEY: His harsh and uncharitable and mean-spirited attitude on the immigration issue.

ROSE: But what do you say to that? Do you speak out against that?

ARMEY: Absolutely have, and I"ve taken a lot of heat for it too. But first of all, we"re a nation of immigrants and a wonderful tradition. People have marched with their feet to America looking for freedom. Our biggest problem in immigration is we have a dysfunctional INS. If the government would do its job with some degree of efficiency "

ROSE: So the enforcement idea is what you would like to see more?

ARMEY: I mean look you drive by any INS office in America, and the one I see is mostly in Dallas, Texas. At 5:00 in the morning you see a line of four blocks long of people who want to be here and be here legally that are having the window slammed in their face and callous indifference by an inept agency.

Here's the YouTube version of his Charley Rose diatribe...

See Roy Beck's thorough analysis of Armey's anti-sovereignty record in Congress: Dick Armey Stuns His Tea Partiers With Open-Borders Advocacy.

It is good that Armey is owning up to what we knew on the inside: Dick Armey used his power as House Majority Leader to promote amnesties for illegal aliens and to block the efforts of "back-benchers" in his Party to combat illegal immigration. Armey is a key reason why it took so long until the majority of Republican votes in Congress became anti-illegal-immigration.

NumbersUSA helpfully posted the phone numbers of Armey's organization FreedomWorks so citizens can call and express their concerns about his perfidy: 1.888.564.6273 and 202.783.3870.