I’m personally hoping that the Tea Pot continue their rampage….so the folks in the middle, the independents can see that many of these folks are the same exact people who have been hiding in the woodwork all these years knowing full well that if they came out of hiding.. everyone would find out who they really are in terms of their philosophies which we have seen before in our history and it was not pretty.

there is a reason why folks on the hard right are often referred to as Neanderthals.

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 8am

Never mind the whole question of pressing charges, isn’t that at least grounds for getting thrown off Facebook?!?

Posted by nevsky42 on 24 March 02010 @ 8am

Example #34,225 of why as a conservative, I do not self-identify with the tea partiers.

Doesn’t build any sympathy in me toward Tommy P, but then again, I’m a conservative who has had his heart removed by Darth Cheney’s ‘doctors’. So there’s that.

Posted by Michael on 24 March 02010 @ 9am

same deal with the tea pot folks who spit on and called black legislators the “N” word?

If you, as a conservative lie with the tea pot dogs.. then don’t complain when you get fleas.

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 9am

This is pure BS and the Tea party idiots who haven’t condemned this are why the extremes on both side make decent folks ill at the mention of politics.

I can tell you that yesterday that on many blog/tweeter feeds I follow that many conservative and those I know are outraged by it. I’m still shocked that anyone is trying to defend this act as anything more than crude and reprehensible harassment. Unless the tea party has zero tolerance in the future for this kind of action the will drive any decent people from their ranks.

Posted by perlogik on 24 March 02010 @ 10am

not outraged enough to ban these folks from their ranks apparently.

The tea pot folks remind me of that scene in star wars where ever conceivable type of critter is in attendance.. and the tea pot folks stand with these folks in their ranks hurling the “N” word and what do they do about?

they go express their “outrage” on twitter?

ha ha ha..

I don’t think the tea party has zero tolerance on this stuff. I think they are driven by it.

prove me wrong.

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

“I can tell you that yesterday that on many blog/tweeter feeds I follow that many conservative and those I know are outraged by it.”

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

In all seriousness: so there’s no Tea Party movement. We all get that, right? There are tea parties, lower case “t,” lower case “p,” but even those tea parties don’t have a solid definition because when we all use the phrase, we’re all using it to mean different things. Perl seems to think of anti-tax folks. Waldo seems to think of the folks who spit racial epithets at black Members of Congress. Others think of them as the anti-healthcare peeps. Personally, I tend to think of the Johnny-come-latelys who didn’t bother worrying about sub-prime lending and housing prices until the real estate market crashed and the foreclosure rate and jobless rate started climbing. But I suspect there’d be very little overlap on a Venn Diagram depicting all of our definitions for what a tea bagger is.

When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra.

Posted by Sam on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

re: ” definitions for what a tea bagger is [and is not]…”

well.. it’s looking like to me that they are much more closely affiliated with the Republican party and the likes of our own AG than the Dems.

If you sleep with dogs.. you will get fleas.

when the well recognized faces of the Republican Party lean out of the Capitol balconies to wave at their “supporters”.. what kind of a picture is that?

we went through this about 45 years ago with folks playing fan-dancing games as to whether or not they “associated” with the folks who not only used the “N” word but were known for their intolerance and hatred … did we not?

Hey.. is you want to argue about what is or is not the kiss of death.. have at it…

The Republicans/Conservatives are in a steep dive and the pilots are arguing about their haircuts.

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

Larry, why is twitter or this blog the wrong place to communiate outrage? Are they not our modern public square or soap box? The press follows those feeds and I’ll wager that is where this story got legs. Don’t you find it odd that you make your claim on a blog.

I don’t have a megaphone, a blog, or a talk show. I have nothing more than a reputation here and on Waldo’s other blog. I will defend the things I believe in and call out the dunderheads.

Posted by perlogik on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

perlogik, you’re kidding -right?

how many non-Conservatives pay attention to conservative blogs and twitters?

I think you need to very publically and very emphatically disavow any connection – and prove it by making sure you don’t have these folks in your ranks at public gatherings and vice versa.

You need to look no further for the potency of this issue than to remember what happened to Trent Lott and George Allen.

these folks – they purposely try to latch on to “respectable” groups.. their goal is to infiltrate and infest – just like fleas..

your job, unfortunately is much more than expressing outrage in conservative blogs and twitters.. IMHO.

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

These people are all wrong, they aren’t the “tea party”, they are the “Whiskey Rebels”. George Washington knew how to deal effectively with this kind of thing. We need a little accountability here.

Posted by Bubby Hussein, Hillbilly Sheikh on 24 March 02010 @ 11am

thanks for the history lesson – seriously.

no problem with the tea party folks who no matter how repugnant their views remain non-violent.

It’s when some of them .. like the more aggressive dogs in a pack go after someone that I get concerned.

this thing is Perriello and other incidents basically setting up potentially violent acts by those so willing to engage.. is a serious issue much like it was back in the flower power days when some of the fringe went viral…

you can see just how much the current environmental movement has been harmed by being associated with eco-terrorism…by a fringe..

not like we don’t know how this works…

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 12pm

That’s the spirit, Bubby! Sounds like you would have loved a recent speaker here in Charlottesville… John Yoo. Send the military after US citizens!

Posted by Michael on 24 March 02010 @ 12pm

Larry G is this a conservative blog? It’s where I live and I’ve said my piece.

Posted by perlogik on 24 March 02010 @ 12pm

And now the consequences of ones own actions
http://bit.ly/asqxo5

Posted by perlogik on 24 March 02010 @ 12pm

This was the *head* of the Danville tea party who started inciting members to violence against a member of Congress for political reasons. Not someone on the fringes of the group, but the equivalent of a Republican or Democratic party chair.

Googling him, the guy appears to have a history of similarly bizarre behavior.

I think that just now, with the severing of that gas line and what appears to be a half-assed assassination attempt, its time to add this group to the terrorist watch list. Not every tea party group everywhere in America. But here in the 5th District we’re seeing the leadership of a political organization successfully incite their members to acts of violence against Democratically-elected officials for political reasons.

These are terrorists and they should be investigated and monitored and if their behavior warrants it then they should be prosecuted and imprisoned just the same as their ilk among al Queda.

Posted by Jack on 24 March 02010 @ 2pm

You people who throw all Republicans into the tea bag category are about as far out in left field as some of these tea baggers are to the right. There is never any useful discourse when things are all one-sided- much in the way that bad things happen when one party controls both the executive and the legislative branches.

Posted by tomr on 24 March 02010 @ 4pm

I don’t know about being as far left as the tea partiers are to the right, but it really isn’t a strong argument to paint all Republicans/conservatives as supporting all things that come out of the tea party, and it serves to shut down meaningful discussion.

That having been said, those Republicans who’re trying to ride the crazy wave into elected office are being reckless and need to wake up and realize that the worst of these people are becoming violent and will become more so. Timothy McVeigh would be right at home in this movement.

Posted by Ben C. on 24 March 02010 @ 6pm

I think Ben C. has it right. but I think it’s ironic after the Conservatives have set the rhetoric on fire all by themselves and supercharged the teapots.

The Republicans have not shied away from the rhetorical bomb-throwing .. “rammed down our throats”, “back room deals”, Obama-care, “baby-killer”, “you lie”.. etc, etc.

if folks think the Republicans hands are clean here.. I would beg to differ.

The polite Republicans, the RINOs are dead with a stake through their heart.. in this party right now.

When you have folks like Sen. Grassley saying that death panels are out to get Grandma… and instead of backing off of it and apologizing.. he stands by it…

well. you’ve got an audience on the right taking their cues from this kind of rhetoric.

sorry guys. but I think ya’ll are head in the ground on this… or worse..

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 6pm

You people who throw all Republicans into the tea bag category are about as far out in left field as some of these tea baggers are to the right.

Actually, Tom, nobody here has done that. Larry was explaining that the ‘baggers are more closely aligned with Republicans than Democrats (which is true, of course). But nobody has “thrown all Republicans into the tea bag category.”

Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 24 March 02010 @ 8pm

You just cannot have elected officials shouting “baby killer” in the halls of Congress without that act sending a message to others and as the news is showing.. we have some apparently dangerous folks running lose threatening harm to those they disagree with.

it’s very, very hard for me to accept that those words have nothing to do with the subsequent threats.

All Conservatives and Republicans should realize that the future of their party as a mainstream political organization – capable of winning elections – is on the line.

what was that phrase uttered in the movie Platoon?

” Ripper Bravo Six, we’re gonna need you soonest be advised I’ve got zips in the wire down here, over!”

Posted by LarryG on 24 March 02010 @ 9pm

“…nobody has “thrown all Republicans into the tea bag category.”

Well, I think Larry pretty much backs up my comment. The rhetoric from the right is the same rhetoric we heard from the left after the Republicans stiffed armed the Dems early in Bush’s presidency. Actually, both parties are behaving badly; there is little decorum in the goverment today- ask Samuel Alito! In regards to dire predictions for Republicans- it will take a lot to be in a worse position than Democrats by the next elections.

Cooler heads need to prevail or it seems that things might get really ugly. Hopefully, the perps behind the Perrielo gas line issue will be caught and dealt with harshly.

Posted by tomr on 24 March 02010 @ 11pm

“The rhetoric from the right is the same rhetoric we heard from the left after the Republicans stiffed armed the Dems early in Bush’s presidency.”

Prove it. Find the wildly popular Democratic up-and-comer who tweeted his/her followers to “reload” and put crosshair symbols over the congressional districts of Republicans. Find the Democratic congressperson who called a Republican congressperson a “killer” on the floor of Congress. Find the Democratic congressperson who interrupted Bush’s state of the union address by shouting “you lie!”

Posted by Cecil on 24 March 02010 @ 11pm

Also, tom, dude: we worked with Bush early on in his Presidency. The late Senator Kennedy (whom no one has ever called a conservative or even a moderate) worked with President Bush on No Child Left Behind and the budget reconciliation amendments that resulted in his famous tax cuts.

It wasn’t until the war in Iraq, when anyone who questioned whether there were WMDs in Iraq was labelled as an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer, that we got anything close to belligerent.

Posted by Sam on 25 March 02010 @ 12am