ACORN and Tea Parties

Whenever there's a demonstration in this country, it's not unusual to have a counter-protest.

That's as it should be. Free speech is best answered with more free speech.

However, any efforts to pose as participants in a demonstration in hopes of depicting the protesters as racist, violent extremists is not OK.

That's dishonest.

Tea Party Protesters Gird for Possible Liberal Backlash

As anti-tax protesters organize tea parties across the country on April 15, rumors are swirling that a backlash is brewing.

Some believe ACORN, which has been under scrutiny for accusations of voter fraud, is preparing to crash some of the tea parties. But ACORN says it is only helping to organize dozens of rallies on the same day in support of President Obama's first budget.

"This is the first we've heard of these so-called 'tea parties.' And, frankly, a bunch of small get-togethers by fringe conservative activists dedicated to simply saying 'no' is of little interest to us," said ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring.

The Tea Party Movement really, REALLY bugs the Lefties.

"[A] bunch of small get-togethers by fringe conservative activists"?

I wouldn't call gatherings of thousands of people "small get-togethers."

And the event attendees aren't "fringe conservative activists." The Tea Party Movement is nonpartisan.

It's such a crock for Kettenring to claim that ACORN just heard about these "so-called 'tea parties.'"

...Tea party organizers, meanwhile, say they're not worried at all about possible disruption.

"If ACORN wants to send some of their paid, pretend activists to show up, that's fine," John O'Hara, who is holding a tea party in Chicago, told FOX News. "They don't have a message that resonates with the American people or resonates with this broad coalition that's upset with the spending that's going on in Washington."

"We don't take them seriously," said Mark Mekler, who is organizing a tea party in Sacramento. "We expect people to attempt to infiltrate, we expect people to attempt to disturb what we're doing.

"But the reality is this is a very broad-based grassroots movement," he told FOX News. "There is no leader at the top. There is no individual event that they can disturb that would cause us a problem nationwide."

Taxdayteaparty.com, which is helping to organize the protests, said more than 250 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies on April 15. Some believe ACORN will try to make the tea parties look like fringe group efforts at best, and racist undertakings at worst.

Mekler said he is not concerned with how outsiders may try to portray their efforts.

"The people who are involved understand they're not racist, they're not fringe, they're not even partisan," he said.

"I mean, these are events where we have across-the-board Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, libertarians. The people who are going to be there know what's going on. We're not worried about these folks polluting the event."

I expect there to be counter-protesters at the Tea Party events.

That's the American way.

What causes me concern is knowing how crazed the Leftists can be. I'm sure there will be efforts by Leftists to make the real participants seem like racist, violent nutjobs.

I'll be very interested to see how the lib media covers these events. I suspect they'll manage to capture images of every Leftist wacko masquerading as a participant.

ACORN members and other Lefties, the lib media, and the White House are all bent on making the Tea Party protesters seem like extremists.

The fact is the opposition to Obama's high tax agenda, his unprecedented power grab, and his assault on the private sector is real and it's widespread and it's mainstream.