TEA Party group will hold rally in Gainesville

Taxed Enough Already (TEA) members hope to grab their congressman’s attention Wednesday by holding a rally outside the Gainesville retirement community where he is due to speak on health care reform.

Rep. Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly, D-11th, is scheduled to attend a health care forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Heritage Hunt in Gainesville. The gathering, according to an e-mail from the Prince William County TEA Party group, is a “private meeting, not open to the general public,” that will include panel discussions from Connolly and officials with the American Association of Retired Persons.
TEA Party members aren’t happy with what they charge as the congressman’s avoidance of the public at-large over health care reform.

“As much as we have written him, called him and asked him to hold an open town hall meeting, he doesn’t want to face people who maybe don’t support the administration’s health care plan,” said Yale Schiffman, whose wife, Nancy, heads the Prince William County TEA Party group.

An issue advocacy group in Gainesville committed to the advancement of free market principles, Tertium Quids, which has been tracking the summertime town hall meetings of all of Virginia’s political representatives, reported that Connolly has not yet scheduled any in-person public forums for all constituents to address health care.

“When asking if any future town halls for all constituents are going to happen,” wrote Krystal Slivinski, vice president for the group’s government affairs, in an Aug. 31 e-mailed update on Virginia’s Democratic and Republican representatives, “I am told about the past events the congressman has already done over the summer. He is planning on having a tele-town hall meeting before they go back into session, and is considering doing an in-person town hall meeting.”

Connolly’s communications director, George Burke, said in an interview that much of the information put out by such groups is false.

The congressman, Burke said, has held numerous public gatherings since April, including one town hall meeting at Westminster at Lake Ridge retirement community in May and another at the district office in Prince William. Both, Burke said, were open to the public and well-attended.

“We did an open house at the [congressman’s] office in Prince William County on the 25th of July and I know the TEA Party people knew about that one,” Burke said. “The tea bag folks sent two protesters … but they chose to keep their distance and wave their signs” instead of joining what he estimated were 150 other attendees who were allowed to question Connolly about various legislative issues.

Burke also listed several other public gatherings Connolly has hosted or attended: a Congressman on Your Corner in April at Giant Food in Dale City; a July 2 telephone town hall meeting that he said drew participation from an estimated 11,000 of 70,000 invited constituents; an Aug. 20 speech to the joint Rotary clubs from Woodbridge and Lake Ridge.

He said the planned TEA Party rally outside Heritage Hunt is a partisan affair sponsored and supported by groups with pure political leanings, and the rally is a “cookie cutter” version of what’s transpired nationally over the health care debate.

“This is a political attack, not a substantive attack,” Burke said.

In a follow-up interview, Schiffman denied that characterization, and said it was “flatly wrong” to dismiss the TEA Party activities as political.

“We’re dealing with the specifics of the health care bill,” he said. “By and large we’re all very concerned about the amount of money being pulled out of Medicare in order to fund putting these additional people into the health care system … and the issue people have been talking about is rationing. Everything we have done has been dealing with specific issues.”

Burke, meanwhile, also questioned the bent of Tertium Quids — which is not involved in the organization of the upcoming TEA Party rally — and suggested its tracking activities were erroneous and politically motivated.

“What do you know about Tertium Quids? They are an ultra-conservative organization that quite frankly advocates for the privatization of Social Security,” Burke said. “There’s no surprise they’re not fans” of the likes of Medicare or other government-run health care plans.

John Taylor, president of Tertium Quids, expressed surprise with the critique.

“The ultra-conservative label is getting a little tiresome, especially when a congressman is not well-versed enough to speak on the actual issues,” he said.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.