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And I'm Robert Siegel in Washington.
P: The $549 registration fee, for one, on top of the fact that it's being treated as a for-profit event at all.
And there's more bad news: Two prominent congressional conservatives who had been scheduled to speak have cancelled.
NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA: The T-E-A in Tea Party stands for the rhetorical question: Taxed enough already? A year ago it was no more than that but it's grown quickly, drawing conservatives who oppose big government to huge rallies and countless smaller protests like this one that greeted President Obama in Tampa yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF A CROWD)
Unidentified Man: Obama is a maniacal idiot.
GONYEA: This Tea Party member, Tom Burns of Jupiter, Florida, was dressed as Darth Vader, though he doesn't exactly sound like him.
TOM BURNS: May the force be with the people. That's basically what I'm saying.
GONYEA: Harnessing that force is what next week's convention is all about, says Mark Skoda, a Memphis-based activist who helped organize the event.
MARK SKODA: Part of what I believe is that rallies and excitement and signs without execution are, frankly, visceral and wonderfully entertaining, but they do not change the actions at the state and government level. And this is all about changing those actions.
GONYEA: The main figure behind the event, Nashville attorney Judson Phillips, has been the target of stinging critiques from Tea Party activists, complaining about a $549 registration fee and the alternative $349 ticket price for those who come only to the Palin speech. Then there's Palin's speaking fee reported to be as much as $100,000, a figure the organizers won't confirm.
Perhaps the biggest complaint: It is not a non-profit event. Phillips is accused of trying to cash in and capitalize on the movement. Skoda says not so.
SKODA: Frankly, this convention right now is about break-even, maybe a few bucks ahead.
GONYEA: Meanwhile, Eric Erickson of RedState.com, a leading conservative blog, posted an item calling the entire convention, quote, "scammy." And his was not the only blog to condemn the event. Mark Meckler co-founded the national TeaPartyPatriots.org. He has described the event as a user/patient of a grassroots movement.
MARK MECKLER: We're all suffering in the current economic environment. And a lot of our folks felt it was appropriate, if they had that kind of money to spend, to stay home in their local areas as opposed to taking all that money out of local elections and going and spending it in Nashville on a fancy hotel and a convention.
GONYEA: But plenty of groups are still backing the Tea Party Convention. Teri Christoph is with SmartGirlPolitics.com, a site for conservative women.
TERI CHRISTOPH: It's the activists, the grassroots activists. To me, having - the reason that we're involved is not because Sarah Palin is involved.
GONYEA: As for the differences among conservatives the convention has ignited, Christoph says this.
CHRISTOPH: I feel like this group is getting picked on because there are some sour grapes. And believe me, there are sour grapes in many Tea Party groups. It's just the nature of something like that trying to get a movement together.
GONYEA: Yesterday came word that Republican Congresswomen Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn - both heroes of the movement - backed out. Neither was to get a speaker's fee, but each said the for-profit nature of the convention raised questions about compliance with congressional ethics rules.
Mark Skoda says all this controversy was unexpected.
SKODA: I think, however, it goes to the key point about, you know, grassroots movements tends sometimes to be unwieldy. These are not professionals. We are not professional corporate organizers.
GONYEA: Some in the Tea Party Movement want to change the Republican Party. Others want to form a third party. That's a dream that's eluded many populist activists across the political spectrum for generations, and the Tea Party is just beginning to grapple with the challenge.
Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.