We have our first eight nine protestors arrested today on Capitol Hill. But, wait! They’re not Tea Partiers. A group of reform supporters briefly “occupied” Sen. Lieberman’s office before getting marched off by Capitol police.
The crowd is gathering for the Capitol Hill Tea Party event at noon. And our man on the scene says a real crowd is shaping up. About a thousand protestors are on hand at the moment, according to Evan’s informal estimate. But remember, the event doesn’t get under way for another 45 minutes.
Rep. Nathan Deal (R) of Georgia, who entered the primary for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Georgia, just announced that he’s co-signing a letter with several of House colleagues asking President Obama to turn over his birth certificate and prove he’s eligible to serve as president.
The crowd down at the Capitol is growing. Two or three thousand, estimates one of our reporters on the scene. There’s apparently a group trying to organize a sit-in at Pelosi’s office in the early afternoon, a sit-in to read the whole reform bill out loud. “We’re going to have a sit in.”
Who says political theater is dead?
If you’re on the Hill and particularly in the building, keep sending us your updates. We haven’t been able to respond to all of them. But they’re all getting a close read. Very helpful.
Former NYC Commissioner and onetime Homeland Security Secretary nominee Bernard Kerik pleads guilty to one count of lying to the White House during his vetting process — one of what is expected to be eight separate pleas to resolve his various criminal cases.
Tea Party crowd tries to “drive the liberals crazy” by reciting the pledge of allegiance.
We’re watching to see what comes of it. But there are apparently a group of Tea Partiers organizing a sit-in in Speaker Pelosi’s office at 1:45 PM. Only they’re telling people an office number that isn’t Pelosi’s office. So it’s hard to say how well that’s going to come off. And presumably, if the Capitol police know in advance what you’re trying to do that might put a bit of a damper on things.
It’s interesting to note that they’ve got a decent turnout of members of Congress up on the stage in this event this morning. Not just Michele Bachmann. This sort of dovetails with what we mentioned earlier, which was members of the Republican Study Committee in the House trying to rebrand the event not as a “protest” or a “rally” but rather a “press event” or “press conference.”
Bachmann is operating as the MC, introducing the speakers. Boehner is speaking now. I’m very curious and very dubious whether the GOP leaders are going to allow crowds from a rally they’re speaking at fan out and try to occupy the Speaker’s office.
On the other hand, in the crowd Boehner is speaking to, there’s a rally poster with images of corpses from Dachau denouncing “National Socialist Health Care.”