House Call On Washington
Last week Michele Bachmann asked Americans to come to the Capitol today to tell Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats NO to government-run health care.
WHAT: Health Care “House Call” on Washington Press Conference
WHO: Republican Members of Congress
Actor Jon Voight, Radio Host Mark Levin, and others.WHEN: Thursday, November 5, 2009 from 12:00-2
WHERE: West Front of the U.S. Capitol (House Side)
Mike Allen at Politico writes:
Brendan Buck, Communications Director of the Republican Study Committee, e-mails House GOP aides about the “House Call” on Washington: [T]he event will begin at noon on West front of the Capitol. We fully expect it will bleed beyond one hour, but our stated end time is 1:00. There will be full press and a sound system for the crowd to hear our speakers. Members will gather at 11:50 in the basement of the Capitol, downstairs from the Crypt, so that they can walk together down the West front steps on the House side. Members will begin to walk down just prior to noon. There will be a stage at the bottom of the steps. Some members may stand on the stage, while the rest will fill in on the steps. We hope to have as many members as possible for a strong visual. There will be press and cameras just in front of the stage, and beyond them will be a good size crowd gathered on the Southwest lawn of the Capitol grounds. The event will begin with a prayer and the national anthem. … Please know that this is a ‘press event,’ ‘press conference,’ or ‘House Call on Washington’ but not a ‘rally’ or ‘protest.’”
The caution about not calling it a rally or protest is a public relations denial of reality. Everyday citizens will be there to protest not to meet the press! I can’t imagine Mark Levin not getting in a few choice words about health care and the Democrats’ proposed extension of power.
Another Politico column has this statement from Rep. Bachmann:
“Nothing scares members of Congress more than freedom-loving Americans,” Bachmann said.
She said that members were frightened by the August town hall meetings, but “then they came back to Washington, and they got back in the bubble and Speaker Pelosi put the hammer down on the Democrats.”…
Republican organizers are planning for activists to go into the House office buildings and the U.S. Capitol and confront members directly after a press conference at noon.
“Don’t bring your pitchforks,” Bachmann said, “bring your video cameras.”
I think Rep. Bachmann has accurately assessed the mood of many Americans!
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has photographs from the House Call and reports:
Attendees report that crowd is shouting “Kill the bill!” and calling out Pelosi. Follow #housecall for live tweets.
She also links to a Politico column, Tea partiers hit Capitol:
Thousands of Tea Party activists descended on Washington Thursday to protest the trillion dollar health care bill and government spending, holding signs protesting Barack Obama’s agenda while aiming chants of “you work for us” at the Capitol building….
Mary Beth Bishop of Monument, Colo., spent $500 on a plane ticket to lodge her complaints about the growth of government.
“We need to show up and uphold the Constitution,” she said. “It wasn’t written on toilet paper.”
__________
H/T: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Politico, Michelle Malkin.
[1]
“Don’t bring your pitchforks,” Bachmann said, “bring your video cameras.”
lol!!!
[2]
Michelle Malkin tweeted a link to a FOX livestream of the House Call protest.
[3]
Watching the live feed now. Is it just a random camera pointing into the crowd? However, they do look pretty spirited.
[4]
It looks like just one camera right now.
Go to the Twitter link for constant updates by people in the crowd.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=housecall
Twitter is great to follow on this kind of event.
[5]
The camera is focused on the steps now as the House GOP is assembling.
[6]
“Legislative malpractice” LOL
[7]
So why no Rush today? Could it be he’s going to show up at the event?
[8]
Is it too much to hope that they’ll throw the doors open to the Capital so the crowd can rush in and take back what is their’s?
[9]
mpt, from one of the columns in my post:
[10]
Tony, Rush is off today and tomorrow. I don’t know where he is.
[11]
I love the visual of Michelle being hidden by the stack of papers
[12]
Daniel Henninger: The permanent tea party WSJ link
[13]
Seems like a small turnout.they are invisable to the enemy anyway.
[14]
Conservative, courageous and beautiful inside and out. You have to love Michele. Michele takes pride in being the second most hated woman by the Dims. At the rate she is going, shew may be #1.
And, to think the NRCC pulled her funding last year.
[15]
Cliff!!!
[16]
“Cliff” is in incredible speaker.
[17]
ip, the protesters aren’t allowed on the Steps.
[18]
Twitter photo of crowd.
Looks huge–I don’t know if it’s 25K as he said, but that’s lots of people!
[19]
Sheesh, CSPAN just interrupted coverage of the protest to cover Rangel blathering on the floor of the House. Oh well, back to the Fox live stream.
[20]
It looks like Mark Levin is getting ready to speak.
[21]
Interesting that I already received campaign contribution info from Bill Russell who is going to run against Jack Murtha again in PA.
The l;ive stream does not seem to be workin for me
[22]
Good speech by Levin.
[23]
I cannot get the livestream up either.
Guess I will catch it later somewhere.
I’m there in spirit.
[24]
From MK Hammer’s twitter:
Walking around to try to get a sense of the crowd size. Very healthy to L, R, and C of Capitol Steps, crowd extends 3/4 of lawn to fountain.
Sign: “Stimulus: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
[25]
Fox News took down the live stream and put up the WH presser
[26]
Watch the live stream from CSPAN3.
[27]
Boo! (to FOX change)
Thanks, mpt. I was just about to post that link!
[28]
Thanks, MP.
I see no reason for Fox to replace the rally with the presser–they can easily run the feeds simulateously.
We report, YOU decide, indeed.
[29]
I think it was just a screw up by Fox rather than an editorial decision. I’m certain the Internet feeds are probably a low enough priority to be run by college interns at Fox.
[30]
Heritage Foundation puts the crowd size at 10,000.
(I did see a tweet saying 50K, but I do not know who originated that number.).
[31]
I think the crowd is pumping up the reps.
[32]
10,000.
I bet that’s more than Nazi Pelosi could get there in support of her bill.
[33]
This is a brilliant idea. From a tweet:
[34]
slightly O/T hattip to HotAir and Wash. Examiner
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Stimulus-saves-nine-out-of-five-jobs-69082477.html
Stimulus saves nine out of five jobs
AWESOME headline!
[35]
I liked what Judy said about her dieting. I lost, or didn’t gain, 10,005 pounds the last few months.
[36]
Does anyone have a link to the video and speeches for the rally today?
Unfortunately, that “work and pay taxes” thing had me tied up today lol
I would really love to hear what Mark Levin had to say….
I hope they do this again and give me enough chance to plan to get there!
[37]
From a tweet:
There r literally 100’s of people in line at every entrance to all3House bldgs
Wylie, Mark Levin has a link to his speech at his site.
[38]
Great Link justrand!
Question for you—What would the press have done if Bush would have sent out stats like that?
[39]
Here is the Link to the entire AP report on jobs and the way the White House does math.
[40]
MI Conservative, I’m sorry, but I have to take out the AP link. They don’t allow even links to their articles.
[41]
I think I found the stimulus info the AP was reporting in this post by Ed Morrissey:
Bogus Porkulus numbers epidemic hits Wisconsin, too
There’s info there on double counting jobs as well as counting raises as saving jobs!
Ed has a chart as well.
[42]
cspan 3 (streaming) had the better coverage btw, fox’s audio was for chit.
10k?? seems high from what I saw but I was not there.
[43]
“Stimulus saves nine out of five jobs” – LOL
[44]
I saw some numbers at MSNBC (I think) that had the crowd at 3,000. They said that was the estimate from D.C. police (although I thought they were not allowed to do crowd estimates any longer since the Million Man march was a bust).
[45]
3k I totally can believe that was my guesstimate at hhr
[46]
No, people were saying 20k, or more.
[47]
#46 I wish I was there to rip into some of the statists who “represent” me up there and are proposing to shred the U.S. Constitution “for my own good”