Time: Tea Party Can't Be Person of the Year Because It's Not a Person

Jack: He can’t lift the seat, Greg. He lacks the strength and the opposable thumbs.

Jack: Focker, I’m not gonna tell you again! Jinx cannot flush the toilet. He’s a cat, for chrissakes!

Larry: The animal doesn’t even have thumbs, Focker.

This scene was the first thing I thought of when I read the December 15th transcript of “Andrea Mitchell Reports” wherein Time editor Richard Stengel threw out a weak excuse as to why the tea party wasn’t named “Person of the Year.”

Because he doesn’t have thumbs, Focker!

So we had the, the Tea Party was one of the runners-up. They had an obviously extraordinary year. I’m biased in favor of putting a single person on the cover, and part of the problem with the Tea Party is it’s hard to find a single person

Er, you did before.

They couldn’t find a single person. I bet they couldn’t even find a single picture of a bunch of persons.

I did. I know there are a ton of brilliant photographers out there with photos miles better than mine, who’ve captured the essence of the tea party. I’ve seen them. This is a photo sent to me by fellow tea partier and videographer Darin at Reboot Congress, a photo by mutual friend and photographer Rob Brenner. It’s my favorite photo ever of the movement:

It captures the tea party perfectly, the new Minute Man, with a Gadsen flag on her shoulder and a camera on her wrist to document the movement. And yes, her. Numerous studies (and a pair of eyes to see) have shown us that the movement is predominately female.

Seeing as we’re all former Persons of the Year, I call BS on Stengel’s explanation. So they opted to settle (at least, that’s the insinuation) because their art department lacked the creativity and Stengel the editorial direction to envision and implement a photographic way to represent the biggest political movement of the past 30 years on the cover?

Heck, they could even recycle (it’s green! It’s eco!) the “You” cover with the mirror since the movement is the mainstream majority.