WASHINGTON (CNN) – The organizer of a "Tea Party" protest in Virginia says he intends to move forward with plans to burn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Tom Perriello in effigy next weekend at a rally to protest Democratic health care legislation.
The event is scheduled for next Saturday in Danville, which borders North Carolina and sits at the southern end of Perriello's congressional district. Perriello, a Democrat, narrowly won his House seat in 2008 and is considered a top target of Congressional Republicans in next year's midterm elections.
When news of the rally surfaced Friday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen condemned the plans as "shocking and despicable."
But Nigel Coleman, the organizer of the Tea Party, told CNN he doesn't see what all the fuss is about. The attention, he said, should be on the Democratic plans to overhaul the health care system.
"We're not going to actually set Perriello on fire or Mrs. Pelosi on fire," Coleman said. "But we have been trying to months to get our point across just how vehemently we are opposed to this health care legislation. For the House vote to come so close and to know that Mr. Perriello is on the other side, it's a kick in the stomach that a lot of people couldn't take."
Coleman said none of Perriello's potential Republican challengers have been invited to the event, which he expects will draw about 100 people.
"Something shocking and despicable is how they've handled this health care legislation," Coleman said, responding to Van Hollen's statement. "Going behind closed doors, writing a bill that is going to fundamentally change what America is. More people are going to be killed by this health care legislation than this bonfire."
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
You stay classy, Virginia.
"Keep the Government Out of My Medicare!"
As they say in the finest political tradition: "Burn, baby, burn"!!!
This comes from the right wing that typically are the loudest voices against the way foreign countries burn effigies of our leaders, or burn our flag etc. It is heartwarming to see they are adopting these terrorist style tactics. What next, beheading people that do not think like them?
I think it's a great idea.
Now they are burning effigies, soon it might be books, or buildings, or maybe actual people. This is still 21st America right?
Oh come on grow up..."more people are going to be killed by this health care bill." Really? What about the thousands who are already dying due to lack of care from insurance companies? "Closed doors?" Seriously, how do you think a bill is written...in the lobby of the Capitol with cameras and reporters on hand? I sure hope that your children are proud of you so-called adults acting like junior high bullies.
As an indepent, I am disgusted.
I love the fact that these people had no problem WHATSOEVER with supporting an illegal war which caused the deaths of thousands of people, both Iraqi and American, but they have no interest at all in helping their fellow citizens. That shows how much compassion and care they have for their own people, esp. when the people who need the most help are WORKING MEN AND WOMEN, just like themselves.
Honestly, people like Pelosi and Reid are not listening to anyone, and continue to ram their liberal garbage down the throats of th taxpayers. Maybe burning them in effigy will get their attention. Personally, I'm beginning to think we need another French revolution... we all march on Washington, yank them out of Congress and into the streets... I think the average Joe off the street is likely smarter, and would do a better job of representing us than the majority of the clowns in Washighton now. And all the pundits keep saying "you can vote them out". What a crock. It's six of one, half a dozen of another. Look, even the idiot Republicans are following the Dem lead and getting on the healthcare bandwagon. The government trying to address healthcare is stupid, regardless of who is proposing the ideas. Stay out of it. Get your own house in order, you bunch of idiots! Figure out how to stop your wasteful spending, and cut the tax rates back to something reasonable. Really. The average Joe on the street could walk into Congress tomorrow, and cut the budget in half, without so much as breaking a sweat. What it takes is having the stomach to make the tough calls, and cutting waste. Again, SIMPLE. That is if you are not some wuss, career politician out to buy votes with some stupid program that wastes millions of our tax dollars. Giving these clowns the power to tax us years ago was the biggest mistake we ever made as a country. We've given them the power to buy votes, give them exhorbitant pay and benefits, and almost guarantee perpertual "service" in Congress. God help us, as nobody else can.
what a bunch of tools.
Ahhhh nut jobs. They do make the world go'round
I agree with some of these tea-baggers. Obama is weak! What he needs to do is order the military is to take out every single one of these teabaggers off to Guantanamo Bay and waterboard, maim, and suffocate every single one of these anti-American terrorists!!!
This is sick. What's wrong with people today? When you burn an effigy – it's like spewing hate and setting the country back 80 years.
Grow up and find other ways to unite but leave the burning out of it. Unless you want to burn in hell.
I love it. These same people would be outraged if you burned an American flag, but they think it's just fine to burn an effigy of the majority speaker of the house.
Personally I don't care what you burn. However the hypocrisy on the right just eats me up.
Stay classy, GOP. Stay classy. Actually, pretty scary that lacking any reasonable agruement to put forth, they'll threaten Pelosi's life...And it would be ludicrous to suggest that this isn't intended as just such a threat. Despicable is an understatement.
Tea Baggers are spineless haters, most of whom don't even vote. Keep up your hate, your ignorance and your bigotry, all you do is galvanize the rest of us to stand tall.
Oh, so they want to discredit everything they stand for with unrelenting hatred?
Shows their true colors, I like it.
This current group that has hi-jacked the Tea Party name to stand for hatred, is despicable. I hope that all fellow Americans will be equally offended and denounce their actions as un-American. Apparently is fine to send billions of dollars to Iraq and have the cash dissipate without outrage. But spend a fraction of that money on fellow Americans is unthinkable. Shame on the RNC and Evangelicals for lending their names to this so called Tea Party of hatred.
Wow, just goes to show how crazy most of these conservative nut-jobs are lately.
Everyone has heard your opinion you unoriginal moron... the fact is, not enough people CARE about your viewpoint to do anything about it. Burning people in effigy is a lame demonstration that will get you nowhere. Get a life you spanner.
This is easily one of the most disturbing things I've heard in quite some time. I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on, burning someone in effigy is extremism and I see no difference between these people that claim to be "patriotic", and other groups of fanatics around the world that despise Americans. Where does one draw the line? Free speech is an essential right and must be protected, even when it is used to spread a message of intimidation and fear. My only hope is that, similar to Klu Klux Klan rallies and Nazi marches, Americans are intelligent enough to see this message for what it is, a rally based on pure, unadulterated hate. How can a person have any tolerance for such people? I am a liberal but the trend of the republican party lately is downright scary. It makes me wish for the good old days before Beck & O'Reilly...I'd take that republican party any day compared to this nonsense.
Burn in effigy..?? Isn't that what terrorists do to our flag or images of American citizens ?? Could an argument be made that the tea-bagger movement is populated with home grown terrorists ?? I wonder, should the FBI start keeping files on the apparent leaders of this movement ? After all, in the late 1960's and early 1970's, those protesting against the war in Vietnam, the radicals hell bent on ruining the American way of life, were watched and photographed by the FBI. And from the rhetoric coming out of their rallies, it sounds like they are advocating the overthrow of the American government through force and violence. Burn her image in effigy? A little overboard, isn't it ?
These people have no class.
The beginning of the end for obama and all his crew!