DC saw upwards of 15,000 Americans flood the Capitol steps and the House office buildings with one message for Nancy Pelosi and advocates of government health care: “No, you won’t”!
Many members of Congress who spoke were buoyed by Virgina’s election results. The crowd went wild for Joe Wilson & Michele Bachmann – especially Bachmann.
One Virginia attendee said she didn’t know if anyone would be there but she heard about it on Fox News two days ago and decide to come. The event was organized in days and the crowd was energized, angry and very patriotic.
Eric Cantor spoke at the rally. I saw Congressman Wolf there too. Others had to be tracked down.
After the rally, citizens waited for hours to get through security and go speak directly with their Congressman. Virginians were there in numbers to get their members on record.
Teri Christoph describes an encounter with Connolly’s staffer that got physical. Apparently, Connolly lets his communications director, George Burke, push female constituents around and threaten them with arrest for asking the Congressman’s position on issues. Maybe we should fire Connolly just for that.
Tom Perriello is leaning towards voting for the bill and Glenn Nye won’t say. Rick Boucher is reportedly undecided.
The crowd’s attitude: if you refuse to hear us now, you WILL hear us in 2010.
I took a few pics from my cell phone. My apologies for their less than stellar quality.
