by Dana Ritter, CBN News Producer
Some parties require a lot of planning and preparation. You know the kind, with formal invitations and RSVPs and official head counts and what not.
Today's "House Call" on Congress was anything but that. In fact, it was less than a week ago that Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota, urged people to come. She brought it up during an appearance she made on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News Channel. Six days ago.
Some people apparently got the invitation. Thousands showed up on the West Front of the United States Capitol. I was surprised at the size of the crowd when I first saw it out the window of the taxi cab. I didn't really know what to expect, I mean how many people could there be on a random Thursday in the middle of November, with less than a week's notice, right?
But, they came. And these people were passionate, too. I saw lots of home made signs that said things like "No Obamacare" and "Hands off my health care." There were people dressed in colonial attire, people waving American flags and "Don't Tread On Me" flags. I could literally hear people calling their Congressmen on their cell phones as I walked through the crowd.
I heard people chanting "Kill the bill!" and "U-S-A!" I saw a guy playing bagpipes and another man playing a saxaphone.
I met people from Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Ohio. It was definitely a lively crowd!
When the press conference with Members of Congress started, the crowd quieted down to listen. Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia and also a Physician started things off saying he had a diagnosis "Legislative malpractice."
The crowd went wild. They cheered Rep. Bachmann as she quoted Thomas Jefferson, "A revolution every now and then is a good thing." They booed when she brought up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's name - so loudly that I couldn't catch what it was that Bachmann said about Pelosi.
House Minority Leader John Boehner made a surprise appearance. Other attenders included Tony Perkins of Family Research Council and conservative celebrities John Voight and John Ratzenberger.
After the event, activists were encouraged to go find their Congressmen's offices. I don't know how each and every one of those thousands of people would have done that, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of them did. I know one thing for sure, I wouldn't want to be standing in that line to go through security! I'm happily back at the office now, writing this blog for you. Hopefully that's a little taste of what it was like to be there today. *I'm working on getting some video up here on the Beltway Buzz, check back for that!
I heard about counter protests, but I didn't see any of those people from where I was. Like I said, it was quite a crowd. Don't ask me to put a number on it though, I could more accurately guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. I'm not a good judge of things like that.