He also alienated FreedomWorks by, among other things, supporting the Troubled Asset Relief Program during the Bush administration.

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"Generally I think business investment in politics is reactive, " says Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, a Tea Party organizing group.

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These days, the squishes apparently include groups like Americans for Tax Reform and FreedomWorks, which supported the pre-existing conditions bill.

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They made that point clear to Rogers at the Duke shareholders meeting in 2011, while hundreds of FreedomWorks activists protested outside.

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He also notes that Matt Kibbe, president of Tea Party organizing group FreedomWorks, used to work at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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Tea Party Express and FreedomWorks spent the last four years making millions for its leadership, but failing to strengthen the movement as a whole.

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FreedomWorks, the conservative organization led by Dick Armey, the former Republican leader of the House, and the de-facto leader of the Tea Party movement, had pulled the event together.

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If there are to be disagreements, says Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, an organisation that has helped tea-party groups throughout the country, they will be on tactics, not the broad direction of policy.

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"It's a huge blow to President Obama, and a big boost to the Republicans, particularly to the Tea Party grass roots, " says Dean Clancy, a health specialist at Freedomworks, a conservative campaign group.

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