UPDATE: Danville TEA Party snuffs bonfire after uproar

UPDATE 8:10 p.m. Monday
The Danville TEA Party has officially cancelled its bonfire and effigy burning planned for Saturday after the event received nationwide interest, according to the group’s chairman, Nigel Coleman.

Coleman said Monday the owner of the property in Blairs has pulled the plug on the event because of the negative attention the rally has garnered. The bonfire originally included burning effigies of Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in response to their support of the health care legislation.

“The media attention has gotten pretty large,” Coleman said. “(The property owner) didn’t want to be viewed poorly, and of course we didn’t want that for them.”

News of the event quickly spread online to national news outlets, blogs and even Comedy Central. The effigy burning is “definitely ruled out” for the future, Coleman said, but the intention was to teach “a history lesson” and compare the event to the birth of the Sons of Liberty after the 1765 Stamp Act.

“I feel like I obviously handled this poorly, as far as the press goes,” Coleman said. “We really should have thought this through more ... and seen how this was going to affect not only us, but other TEA parties and the TEA party movement in general.”

Coleman, who seemed disappointed, would not say whether he had received any specific requests from other TEA party movements to cancel the event, but said that “I’m always in contact with other TEA party leaders and I always take their feedback into consideration.”
Republicans react

Some Republican leaders have distanced themselves from the event. Tucker Watkins, chairman of the 5th District Republican Committee, declined to comment. Three of the seven declared challengers to Perriello for the 5th District seat in 2010 responded, including Laurence Verga, of Albemarle County; Feda Kidd Morton, of Fluvanna County; and Ron Ferrin, of Campbell County.

“I think we need to have very open and civil discourse in this country,” Verga said. “Reasonable adults can disagree on points and come together as Americans, but that (event) to me is an unconscionable thing to do and I would not participate in any way shape or form.”
Morton praised the Danville TEA Party for “engaging voters of the district to voice opinions on the health care debate.”

“Perriello’s blatant disregard for the opinion of his constituents voiced in town halls he hosted shows his lack of commitment to those who elected him and the needs of his district,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “I have tremendous respect for the TEA Party’s effort and its commitment to protecting our liberty.”

Ferrin disagreed, saying he believed “we can do better.”

“While I certainly understand the frustration...” Ferrin said in an e-mail, “I do not believe that burning anyone in effigy would yield any positive result... I believe that the change we were sold is a change we cannot live with and I will work to repeal it.”

The remaining four candidates could not be reached for comment: Ken Boyd of Albemarle County; state Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham; Michael McPadden, of Albemarle County; and Bedford County resident Bradley Rees, who is running as a member of the Virginia Conservative Party.

A political bellwether?

Bob Holsworth, president of the nonpartisan VirginiaTomorrow.com, said the national TEA Party movement shows - to some level - what many Americans are feeling.

“While the Democrats have by and large attempted to frame the TEA parties as the invention of political crackpots,” Holsworth said, “my sense is that they reflect a frustration that is felt even more broadly than the people that actually participate in them. And that frustration is a sense that the government in Washington is too large, moving too fast over too many issues.”

Holsworth doubted that the bonfire would have had a direct effect on Perriello.

“He’s gonna get a stiff challenge no matter what happens with the TEA parties,” he said.

Liberal political blogger Ben Tribbett, who runs the popular “NotLarrySabato” blog, called the planned burning “stupid,” but acknowledged that there seems to be much discontent with Perriello in the 5th District after his votes for both health care reform, which angered conservatives, and the Stupak-Pitts abortion amendment, which angered liberals.

“Tom has walked himself into a corner on both sides,” Tribbett said. “... And it doesn’t put him in a great position politically for 2010.”

As for the effigy burning, Tribbett said “it’s like a third-world country to take pictures of someone and go burn it in the street.”

Patricia Evans, a member of the Danville TEA Party, defended the group’s interests in an e-mail to members Monday.

“Many people across America are extremely upset by the actions of our government,” Evans said, “but we must always represent the conservative movement in a strong but respectful manner. Winning over hearts and minds is the only way we will get our country back.

Nigel loves his country and just let his feelings take over in this case.”

Catherine Amos is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee.

From earlier

The chairman of the Danville TEA Party Patriots said Sunday he was unsure about whether the group will continue with its planned effigy burning of Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a bonfire rally Saturday in Blairs.

Hours after news of the bonfire hit the Internet on Friday, at least one national news outlet had the story on its Web site, among dozens of bloggers. Chairman Nigel Coleman said coverage of and public reaction to the event was “kinda strange.”

“We’ve been getting a lot of flack about this,” Coleman said, “about burning those two in effigy and a lot of people in the public are unhappy about it. The story has gotten so large, it’s kinda strange.”

Coleman sent a news release to local media Friday about the event, which opened with: “In a move sure to spark controversy, the Danville TEA Party will close their ‘Fired Up for Freedom’ rally by burning Rep. Tom Perriello and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy in response to the passage of landmark health care legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

But Coleman said Sunday that some members of his group were “uneasy” with the idea of counter-protesters and that people might mistake the TEA Party Patriots for being violent. Coleman compared the event to similar acts of protest in the nation’s history, such as opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765.

The bonfire is still planned, Coleman said, but the effigy burning was in question. However, TEA Party member Patricia Evans wrote in an e-mail to the group Saturday night that “nothing will be burned at our upcoming bonfire except an occasional hot dog.”

“I still would like to do it,” Coleman said, “but it’s still up in the air at this point. We’ve already started stacking firewood and building the effigy …we will have a bonfire. Burning someone in effigy was just gonna be part of it.”

In a news release Friday from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Chairman Chris Van Hollen condemned the bonfire.

“These shocking and despicable acts are becoming all too common at extreme right-wing Republican rallies,” Van Hollen said in the statement. “… While there should be a robust debate about reforming America’s broken health insurance system, violent expressions are beyond the boundaries of a respectful debate.”

Coleman defended the burning, which he said was not violent in nature.

“We were using it as a symbol of how things are similar to that (colonial) period in history,” he said. “Things have gotten out of hand … the more real we get, the more unreal it gets.

“We knew that it would garner attention; we didn’t know how much … People are upset, people are angry. This isn’t just some $100 million bridge to nowhere. This is a fundamental change in the constitution; a fundamental change in America.”