Sounds like people were really mad about Hannity not being at the Cincinnati Tea Party tonight:
Several people in the audience shouted “refund!”
[SNIP]
The Tea Party reported about $77,500 in ticket sales. It had budgeted $70,200 in expenses for the event, including security and other costs, officials said. However, there will also likely be extra costs, as the group said in a news release late Thursday that it would honor requests for refunds. It said an e-mail address to request a refund would be set up within 48 hours.
There is a big blame game going on with this also:
Cincinnati Tea Party officials said the idea that they would make money on the event is false.
“The Left drove that story, Fox capitulated to it and left,” said Chris Littleton, a Cincinnati Tea Party spokesman. He criticized Fox for not coming to Tea Party if it had concerns.
Glenn Reynolds is reporting that Hannity’s deal was with the University of Cincinnati:
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Cincinnati Tea Party folks tell me that they had no deal with Hannity — he had a deal with the University of Cincinnati, and they had a deal with the University of Cincinnati, but there was no deal between them.
However a quick look at the UC calendar quickly shows that the event was the Cincinnati Tea Party with Sean Hannity. Also the tickets don’t mention anything about UC sponsoring or arranging the event, just that it was at their arena.
A public university like the University of Cincinnati wouldn’t organize a political event like this and have a political group like the Tea Party not only sell the tickets, but also keep all the proceeds. Not only is it fishy, but also possibly illegal. UC gets taxpayer funding, so spending taxpayer dollars on such a political show would raise all kinds of red flags. An example would be another political event held at a college tonight just 30 miles from UC (and right in my back yard).
Tonight at Miami University, Paul Begala made a speech. While the event was held on university grounds, it was hosted by the Miami College Democrats. This has been the case every time a political speaker has been here, from Ann Coulter to Howard Dean. It’s the student political bodies that organize and pay for the event – not the university.
So for Reynolds, a college professor, to try and push that a publicly funded college actually arraigned the event is dishonest to say the least. But whatever comes of this, one thing is for certain – Fox execs are worried about an appearance problem when it comes to them and the Tea Party. That is actually a good thing, considering it was Fox’s hosts who helped increase the popularity of the Tea Party.