Tea party organizers across the country are condemning the harassment and threats of violence against House Democrats who voted in favor of the health care overhaul that passed the House Sunday.
Though individual tea partiers – and many Republicans — have distanced themselves from the threats and deemed them unaffiliated with the movement, the condemnations mark a more forceful response and indicate a keen awareness of the damage that being linked to them could do to the tea party brand. There hasn't been any hard evidence that the reported harassment is linked to the tea party movement, but Democrats have tried to draw the link between the harassment and the sometimes-inflammatory rhetoric that tea partiers and Republicans deployed in opposing the health care overhaul.
The organizers of some major Florida tea party groups, for instance, on Thursday morning released an open letter to Congress and President Barack Obama declaring they “stand in stark opposition to any person using derogatory characterizations, threats of violence, or disparaging terms toward members of Congress or the President.”
The letter calls the tea parties “a peaceful movement” and says its leaders denounce “all forms of violence” and “support all efforts to bring [any perpetrators] to justice and have encouraged full cooperation within our movement and have asked for the same from the members of Congress who have laid such claims.” Full Story
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