Update: In their typical under-handed manner, Nancy Pelosi and liberal Dems are trying to undermine the Effectiveness of the 9/12 March on Washington: Tea Party Rally Sparks Dispute Over Potential Turnout
Tea Party Rally Sparks Dispute Over Potential Turnout
A top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned fellow Democrats in a memo obtained by FOXNews.com that up to 2 million people may attend the march on Washington. But conservatives believe Democrats are playing an expectations game to claim the event was a failure.
Tens of thousands of conservative activists are preparing to descend on the nation's capital Saturday (today) for a rowdy tea-party style protest, event planners say. About 30,000 have signed up on the event's website to attend the march and rally and oppose what they call excessive government spending, says Adam Brandon, spokesman for FreedomWorks, a group that supports lower taxes and less government. Former House majority leader, Republican Dick Armey, is the organization's chairman. More may show, Brandon says, and at least 450 tour buses will bring protesters from around the country.
Both the U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S. Park Police say they're boosting staffing for the event. They decline to provide crowd estimates.
"We're expecting a pretty big crowd," says Sgt. David Schlosser, U.S. Park Police spokesman, adding that he believes the event will be comparable to "the majority of our First Amendment activities, which we do on a routine basis."
FreedomWorks planned the rally, but many groups are participating, including the National Taxpayers Union and Tea Party Patriots. The event has caught fire online via e-mail campaigns and on social networking sites such as Facebook.
Protesters' concerns include health care, the economic stimulus, car company bailouts and the climate change bill, says Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks.
"People are telling me two things: 'I've never done this before,' and 'I've never even talked to my congressman, but I have to show up because our government is out of control,' " Kibbe says.
Ilyse Hogue, spokeswoman for the liberal network MoveOn.org, calls the protesters "an extremely vocal minority" who resort to shouting people down instead of engaging in reasonable debate.
"They are completely out of step with where the majority of people in this country want to go," she adds. "Instead of shouting down elected representatives and their fellow citizens who have ideas about how to move forward, they should probably get in the discussion about what we can do to solve the health care crisis, the economic crisis and the energy crisis."
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck as well as Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteran have encouraged people to participate. Glenn will broadcast live Saturday from Washington. Mark Williams, another conservative talk show host, is riding the Tea Party Express, a 34-city, 7,000-mile bus tour that began in Sacramento on Aug. 28 and ends in the capital Saturday.
When the Tea Party Patriots held their first nationwide rally in February, organizers said 30,000 people showed. Over the summer, the movement gained momentum with the town hall health care meetings that were punctuated by passionate outbursts over what protesters call "Obama care."
Saturday's rally will mark another step in the movement's growth, Brandon says. "This will be the largest gathering of fiscal conservatives that we've ever had in the nation's capital," he says.
(President Obama again insults fiscally conservative and moderate average Americans by being out of town for a small organized Healthcare Townhall in Minnesota today.) After reading about the Dems latest attempt to foil the 9/12 March on Washington, Obama’s absence looks more and more like a planned cowardly retreat… so he can say I wasn’t here, if things get roughv due to Dems dirty tricks.
It is amazing how the Dems don’t remember that when you try to undermine true protest it only makes the participants stronger, madder and more determined. Funny how the Dems have forgotten that once upon a time they were the people who protested for the ‘rights of the people’ and civil liberties. Now they have become the party of the Gestapo tactics!?! How things change!
Tea Party Rally Sparks Dispute Over Potential Turnout
Stay Tuned…
See Coverage on Fox News later today as Glenn Beck hosts at 1PM ET/10AM PT
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