They have not cracked the Tea Party movement itself, but Occupy Wall Street in New York and its reiteration across the country have in short order broken the stranglehold that the Tea Parties have had on our national political discourse. In response, the leaders of the largest Tea Party factions have denounced the Occupy protests in direct, unambiguous and characteristically overblown statements.

Tea Party Patriots chairman, Mark Meckler, said, "We have nothing in common with them other than we are all American citizens," according to The Daily Caller. (At least Meckler didn't ask the Occupiers for a copy of their long form birth certificate.) Similarly, Tea Party Nation boss Judson Phillips opined that, "The ultimate goal of the Tea Party is a reduction in the size of government and a return to constitutional bounds. The goal of these people is ultimately a socialist revolution." Eric Odom, one of the original instigators of the Tea Party movement who now has a perch at Patriot Action Network (nee ResistNet Tea Party) and its Liberty Network News, wrote that Occupy Wall Street is a "a front for a dastardly agenda plotted by radical globalists."

Whether or not the Occupiers are radical globalists or socialist revolutionaries, they should return the favor and denounce the Tea Parties for their scrooge-like squeeze on the national debate, their ugly bigotry and their anti-democratic proposals to limit voting rights and undo the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of birthright citizenship.

What then to do about the Tea Partiers who want to be friends with the Occupiers. Consider FedUpUSA, which describes itself as a group of investors who helped start the Tea Parties. With its headquarters in Michigan, the FedUpUSA website promotes a string of Tea Parties and the union-busting think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy. In Ohio, FedUpUSA announced its support for Occupy Cleveland. Should Occupy Cleveland support FedUp USA? Let us hope not. To repeat an old cliche: With friends like that you do not need enemies.

Then there are the followers of Ron Paul, "a lot of [whom] ... are spreading news about the Occupy Wall Street event," according to the aforementioned Odom.

Indeed, it does seem that the Ron Paulsters are helping themselves to more than a little bit of the energy and momentum available at the Occupy protests. Over at Campaign for Liberty, the well-staffed national organization that Paul created out of his run in the 2008 Republican primaries, one blogger hoped that the protests would prove to be "a beneficial opportunity to spark debate regarding the fundamental economic issues of our time."

A public debate would no doubt be good for the whole country. But that Paulster, at least, thinks that the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, "will have to overcome years of pre-conditioned political dissonance...." In Paul talk, "dissonance" is another word for having ideas the Paulsters don't agree with. They are willing to co-opt the Occupiers, if the latter are willing to have the "dissonance" washed out of their brains. You get the picture.

Otherwise the Campaign for Liberty does not formally have much to say about the protests.

Over at Ron Paul Forums, however, they took a poll, "Do you think the Tea Parties should support Occupy Wall Street?" The results: Yes - 57%, No - 43%. While the question was eventually modified to say something like "parallel demonstrations" or a "dialog," the answers reflected a desire by Tea Party Paulsters to find new supporters for the Paul cause among the Occupiers.

What is the Ron Paul cause. Number one seems to be opposition to the Federal Reserve, the banking system established during the Woodrow Wilson presidency that manages the banks' system of credit and money supply. There is much to criticize in the Federal Reserve, but the answer to the problems it has created is definitely not to put the country on the gold standard, as Ron Paul says. Reverting to the gold standard would only enhance the power of the creditors (banks) over debtors (the rest of us).

Number two seems to be Paul's long-term friendship with the John Birch Society. From his first election to congress in 1976, he has been tied up with the Birchers. When he gave the keynote to the Birchers' 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2008, Paul congratulated the assembly on its success over the years, and noted that society members had helped him win elections. Paul has spoken at more than one Birch event, lending whatever credibility he has to an organization that has opposed every piece of civil rights legislation that has been introduced. Further down the numbers, Paul is opposed to abortion rights for women. He is in favor of rescinding the 17th Amendment, which expanded voting rights and guaranteed direct election of United States Senators. Why would Paul oppose the 17th Amendment? Well, to protect states rights, of course.

While his followers are not as numerous as Ron Paul's, Alex Jones is another bigot trying to get his hand in the Occupiers nest. According to his website, Infowars: "Well meaning protestors who have joined the Occupy Wall Street effort, including in solidarity activities in cities everywhere, need to be educated about the power held by this insidious institution." What institution? Again, the Federal Reserve.

Alex Jones peddles various conspiracy theories from an Austin, Texas based radio talk show. In addition to believing that the September 11th attacks were part of a government plot, he contends that "there was government involvement with the Oklahoma City bombing." As such. he is a popular voice in militia circles. He also indulges himself periodically with racist, anti-Semitic and nativist rants.

During a November 24, 2008 radio broadcast, he claimed, "every key person in the Bush administration and now in this next administration just so happen to be the sons and daughters of the founders of Israel and Mossad chiefs and people, and they're openly not even US citizens, and they openly are at the head of the table in anti-gun operations in the US, and I'm sick of it....This nation is now completely and totally under international crime syndicate control, a consortium of wicked robber barons, black nobility – that is the old royal families of Europe, intermarried and inter-bred with the Rothschild's, and the Rockefellers."

Jones's websites InfoWars.com and PrisonPlanet.com also feature an abundance of anti-Semites. One columnist claimed, "the Jewish holocaust [sic] was engineered to induce Jews to build Israel, intended as the capital of the New World Order." Of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, who was arrested in Canada and deported back to Germany, the same PrisonPlanet columnist wrote: "Zundel's only crime is to question the Zionist version of the holocaust ([sic]. What are the Zionists so afraid of? Why do they wield so much power?"

Jones has also asserted that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are driven by the goal of killing all white people, "You'd better go read their literature. You'd better go find out what they're saying. They're saying as soon as they can they're gonna kill every white person in this country." On his radio program he declared, "Mexicans want to destroy America. I'm talking about the illegal alien Mexicans, they hate this country with an absolute passion..."

Jones' Infowars and his call to "Occupy the Fed," can only harm the cause of the Occupy Wall Streeters. IREHR says to Jones, to the Ron Paulsters and the other bigots who want to crash the Occupy protests: Hands Off Occupy Wall Street!