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Tea Party Group Reconsiders Burning Pelosi in Effigy

(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
As part of a protest next Saturday, the "TEA Party Patriots" of Danville, Virginia had been planning to burn in effigy House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a local freshman Democratic congressman, Rep. Tom Perriello.

But on Friday, as the Lynchburg News Advance reports, word got out about the plan, prompting bloggers and a national news organization to pick up the story.

Now the group is reconsidering the burning in light of the media coverage, which the group's chairman, Nigel Coleman, deemed "kinda strange."

"We've been getting a lot of flack about this," Coleman told the News Advance, adding that "a lot of people in the public are unhappy about" the plan to burn the two politicians in effigy.

Here's some background from the newspaper:

Coleman sent a news release to local media Friday about the event, which opened with: "In a move sure to spark controversy, the Danville TEA Party will close their 'Fired Up for Freedom' rally by burning Rep. Tom Perriello and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy in response to the passage of landmark health care legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives."

But Coleman said Sunday that some members of his group were "uneasy" with the idea of counter-protesters and that people might mistake the TEA Party Patriots for being violent. Coleman compared the event to similar acts of protest in the nation's history, such as opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765.

The bonfire is still planned, Coleman said, but the effigy burning was in question.

Last month, anti-abortion rights activist Randall Terry called on his supporters to burn in effigy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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