Olympia Tea Party Wrapup

There were (State Patrol estimate, as reported by various news agencies) 5,000 people in Olympia, WA today for the Tax Day Tea Party there. It was perhaps the largest crowd I've ever performed to.

All the speakers were great. State Auditor Brian Sonntag (D) and Senator Janea Holmquist (R) showed, as expected, great bipartisanship in calling for fiscal responsibility and respect for the rights of the people.

And this guy showed he wasn't giving up hope that the Sonics won't leave Seattle.

Overall a great day. Couldn't have asked for more. Having that many people on that day at the Capitol surely sent a message to Olympia. Gregoire campaigned on no tax increases. She realized that she needed to say that to win a majority vote in this state, but many Democrats in Olympia want to raise taxes anyway. We reminded them that the voters are still watching.

The TV coverage wasn't great. KIRO barely mentioned what happened, and didn't give any detail or interview anyone. The other three major local networks at least interviewed some people (KING and FOX put The Piper on camera!), and all three broadcasted intelligent responses and explanations from attendees rather than focusing in on some "crazies" to try to make the rest of the attendees look bad.

They didn't interrupt people or try to make inane arguments against them, like "reporter" Susan Roesgen from CNN in Chicago.

I can't recall seeing such a disgusting display from a "reporter" (sorry, I just can't bring myself to call her a reporter without quotes around it). Words can't easily express how completely unprofessional she was.

She complains about how a man shouldn't depict Obama as Hitler, arguing with the protestor that he shouldn't call Obama a fascist because "he's the President of the United States," and asking "do you know how offensive that is? (Never mind that two years ago, the very same reporter when confronted with a puppet of Bush as both Hitler and the devil, she offered no criticism of any kind.)

Then she goes over to a man with his child and asks him why he is there, and as he is explaining, she interrupts him to ask him what liberty has to do with taxes (duh); and then she won't let him answer that question, either, asserting that he is eligible for a $400 tax credit, implying that therefore he shouldn't be complaining.

She finally lets him try to finish answering the first question, and when he talks about people enjoying the fruit of their own labor, she interrupts again, saying that Illinois is getting $50 billion from the stimulus, as if that is in any way relevant.

She then walks away without letting him respond, and says, "I think you get the general tenor of this," when she's the one who did most of the talking (and interrupting, and arguing, and so on). Roesgen should have been fired on the spot. I suspect CNN will reprimand her, if not fire her. We'll see. If she had been on MSNBC, they probably would have promoted her to anchor.

If you're interested in the press coverage of the Tea Parties, I suggest you watch Reliable Sources on CNN this Sunday morning at 7 a.m. PT. Host Howard Kurtz has done a good job in the last year pointing out pro-Obama and anti-Republican bias, and I suspect he'll give Roesgen and others a good smackdown.