Hopefully, you spent the holiday season doing something other than following the inanities of movement conservatives (I definitely need new hobbies). You might have heard that former rightwing Congressman and Tea Party astroturfer* Dick Armey, who was involved with FreedomWorks, a Tea Party aligned organization, attempted to stage a coup at that organization, complete with armed guard and everything (by the way, does a political action committee really need a guard with a concealed weapons permit? That’s hardcore). A few days later, there was a counter-coup wherein Armey was booted and the former exiles were restored. While these shenanigans are par for the course for Stalinist-mindset organizations (though the gun is still a little over the top), we bring you this story as set-up for this (boldface mine):

Former House majority leader Dick Armey says he took an $8 million consulting deal in return for leaving the conservative organization FreedomWorks because the group was “dishonest” and because he “couldn’t leave with empty pockets.”

The arrangement, he says, will allow him to “never have to work again forever.”

… Under the terms of the deal, Armey will receive $400,000 a year until he is 92 – a total of $8 million – to be a consultant for Stephenson…

“I can’t stay here (FreedomWorks), I can’t work with people like this, and I can’t afford to leave with empty pockets,” Armey said.

He said his choice was to put in “10 years of hard labor” to win control of FreedomWorks when Stephenson said to him, “‘Instead of hard labor, how about you never have to work again forever?’ How many people are going to have trouble of making that choice at the age of 72?”

Actually, between the collapse of the housing market and many people’s 401(k)’s (if they were lucky to have one), a lot of people are making that choice. It’s worth noting that Armey receives a very nice pension given his time and salary in Congress.

By the way, the average annual Social Security payment for retired workers is $14,872.

These guys really are the political equivalent of Elmer Gantry. The long con rumbles on…