A group of disgruntled Tennessee Tea Partiers held a guerilla press conference in an adjacent lobby to the National Tea Party Convention here in Nashville this afternoon. Their message was about as organized as the movement itself – proudly “grassroots,” meaning verging on chaos.

“We wanted the average citizen – not politicians or people who can afford this thing – to have a convention,” said Antonio Hinton, a Knoxville Tea Party activist not participating in the convention. “I wish we could afford it. We would love it if they would come and work with us.”

So was protesting the convention cost the point of their press conference? After all, few could afford the $549 fee to attend the three-day shebang organized by Judson and Sherry Phillips of the Nashville Tea Party – under a for-profit banner than irked many other Tea Partiers and politicians such as Reps. Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn, both of whom withdrew as speakers. Um, not quite, after all, they’re pro-capitalism, too. “The Tea Party organization from across the state and met with Phillips and asked him to expand this venue so that the average citizen could attend and we were told that we didn’t have the same vision and values and that he wanted to keep it elite,” says Andrew Shreeve, an Eastern Tennessee activist. Shreeve said he had an e-mail to prove this allegation, but when asked he referred reporters to a Politico reporter whom was nowhere to be found.