Tomorrow, the 9/12 protest will take place in Washington, D.C. An offshoot of the Tax Day Tea Party movement, and hyped by Glenn Beck and conservative activist groups, the turn out promises to be healthy. But Democratic leadership is even more sanguine about the possibilities than organizers:
A top House Dem leadership aide has emailed a memo to Dem aides on the Hill and outside liberal groups warning they should brace for a turnout of up to two million people, suggesting Dems worry that if enough conservatives descend on the Mall it will amount to a major PR victory for the right.
The aide, Doug Thornell, warned in the memo that the dust-up over Joe "you lie" Wilson has been invigorating conservatives. "It looks like Saturday's event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people," Thornell wrote in the memo, which was forwarded by a source.
Two million tea partiers, huh? I'm sure Nancy Pelosi can imagine nothing more frightening, but the estimate sounds a bit, shall we say, fishy. Greg Sargent goes on to note the possible meaning of this Democratic optimism:
The House leadership memo predicting huge turnout could have been written in hopes that it would leak and inflate expectations for turnout, anticipating that it will fall far short.
In other anti-tea partier news (and without equating the perpetrators with Democratic aides, of course), there was a bomb threat at FreedomWorks today, which has been the Left's designated bogeyman in the tea party and health-care protests they allege are entirely "Astroturfed." It turned out to be a false alarm, and employees were let back into the building after bomb-sniffing dogs had been brought it. I imagine it's unlikely anyone will get busted for it, but whosoever shall call in a bomb threat on 9/11 for petty political reasons shall not escape it but know eternal shame. I think that's in the Scriptures.
