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
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Sigh..... why do people still believe healthcare is something that is bad? I honestly do not know where all the fear comes from, it's as if, instead of healthcare, death panels were being set up based upon intelligence, Darwinism, knocking off the dumb ones.
i cant believe that here in america we would happily and proudly burn any member of government in effigy as i see it as an act of treason dispite the freedom of speech. speak all the hate you wish but burning is an actual action. whats next ? we burn effigys of higher ups in government? i am sad to see how inappropriate some of our fellow "americans" act. the armchair complaining and second quessing of our elected officials is getting tiresome and, to be honest, is doing nothing but wasting time and energy. dont like how things are? run for an office. dont like that idea? then put your energy where it belongs and shut up.
Nice. Just like the Salem Witch Trials. And we got all the witches didn't we. What a bunch of morons. I hope you get sick with no health care to cover you so you can feel and understand the destruction of your misadventured and uninformed ideology.
Meh, protestors on the other side of the political spectrum have burned worse. American flags, effigy's of President's, Bibles, just to name a few. I think an effigy of a corrupt politician is no loss to anyone except the straw that fills it.
Quick, send the phsyciatrists!!
Voters are turned off and disgusted by Tea Party organizers and their kindergarten tit for tat rhetoric that keeps the GOP PARTY of NO saying NO to everybody in creation .... but YES to WARS, SPECIAL INTERESTS, and EROSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES. The NAY CROWD does everything they can to invade your personal life and tell you what to do with your time, faith, money, and groin, They rail agaisnt big government but they represent BIG BROTHER. They distort public opnion, by inventing news, reacting to news they've invented, protesting against the backlash of their own fabrications, ALL done to politicize every issue, including health care reform, to the benefit of special interest groups. Ka-CHING. YES. That's the real interest. $
Voters are tired of do-nothing politicians, whether right or left, makes no difference; they do NOTHING all day long. All year long. Ad nauseum. Are there any intelligent, rational adults left in our society? If not, we deserve the asinine, hypocritical, puritanical mediocrity we usually get.
you can't burn, you only melt wax.
And the left-wing hate filled Obama supporters did this to Bush on a daily basis at the Obama campaign rallies with Obama present, but CNN would never report or show the video on their Obama talking points network.
Instead of burning the speaker's effigy, ask the GOP why they had offered abortion coverage in their health insurance choices to their employes since 1991 but have publicly denied the same to the general public. Once the hypocrisy is answered, you can then come back and do what you are planning to do.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
I believe it to be ignorant of the Democrats not to invite Republicans to the event. That's why the Tea Party is mad enough to do what they intend to do. An effigy is not a person it is a sign on how mad people are at the Democrats. And if the Democrats keep doing what their doing at this point look for them not to get re-elected to the house or senate.
No comment on people who prefer to follow the "conventional " pattern which makes it unnecessary for them to THINK.........
Will there be hotdogs and marshmellows at this bonfire?
Wow, I thought burning people in effigy was something that was only done in the countries we invade.
Funny but this group consists of the sort of people that usually point to effigy burning in Iran or similar places as signs of how evil and hateful they are.
What you idiots have done, are doing and seem to be intent on will do is what is despicable and unamerican. We voted for the democratic platform. The majority won and at every turn you dumbniks put up a barricade. Well the majority of the voters are now represented in Congress who are bound by ethics and morality to vote for the platform as put forth by President Obama. Now that is the American way. GET OUT OF THE WAY OF THE AMERICAN WAY!
This is only the first step... then those ruffians will be burning flags.(Surely I jest!)
Let us remember that it's better to have the freedom to burn any nation's flags than it is to be restricted in the exercise of visual protest.
Better to burn flags or effigies than people.
These Teabaggers are so trifling. They would actually go to Danville, VA, where unemployment is close to 20%, to burn in effigy someone who is actually trying to help the situation. If they hate the healthcare plan that's being proposed, why not come up with a better idea? The unemployed of Danville would be quite open to hear their better idea. Oh yeah, they have no idea. Just NO, NO, NO. This should play real well.
Yes, because *that's* always productive. Geez...
Savage Neanderthals, they should have zero say on the national scene.
Why are the liberals whining???? They seem to applaud free speech when it involves burning a flag, so what's the big deal?
Liberals don't like their own tactics being thrown in their faces, do they? Look what Code Pink does, and of course CNN doesn't seem to have a problem with that.
These teabaggers are a bunch of racist idiots!
Teriffic! Now we're acting like third world countries, burning effigies. Next thing we'll be burning the flags of countries we don't like and rioting in the streets. Come on people, let's act like adults.
No difference between Republicans and Iranians
Is this The United States of America or Nazi Germany?