House Dem Leadership Memo On 9/12 Rally
Freshmen and Sophomores:
Some of you have asked about the 9-12 rally Fox News’ Glenn Beck, FreedomWorks and other conservative organizations are organizing for Saturday. As you may know, FreedomWorks held a Capitol Hill demonstration yesterday, that turned into an impromptu rally for embattled Rep. Joe Wilson. Now, based off of news reports and comments from leaders in the Tea Party movement, it looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people. Below is what I have been able to find on crowd estimates. As I learn more, I will let you know.
Best,
Doug
• MEDIA MATTERS: “Beck announces he will anchor Fox News’ live coverage of “the biggest 9-12 tea party yet, on Capitol Hill”
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908130005
• NYTimes.com: “A demonstration against government spending and “socialized health care” planned for Sept. 12 in Washington could become “the largest gathering of fiscal conservatives ever,” organizers said on Thursday.”
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/fiscal-conservatives-plan-largest-gathering-ever/#comment-13997
• GOPExiles.com: “The march, organized by Armey’s political group FreedomWorks, is scheduled for Sept. 12 and is already generating hundreds of thousands of responses, the Texas Republican tells Newsmax.TV. The group isn’t providing transportation, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.”
http://www.gopexiles.com/?p=3097
• 912dc.org, “The March on Washington – Update”
“As one wise conservative sage, Morton Blackwell, always says, “You should underpromise and overachieve.” That is what we are trying to accomplish by not giving the media any crowd estimates that they can use against us. We want to surprise them and shock the nation by the massive turnout that we expect on 9-12. I can only ask you to trust our judgment in this, and promise you that we will have a huge turnout.”
http://912dc.org/2009/08/the-march-on-washington-update/