"They Called Him a Coward..."

This is utterly pathetic, but sadly so typical of the "Don't-Tread-on-Me" waving (note the photo from this "UNABASHEDLY PRO-LIBERTY" blog) "teabagger" crazies.

...Yesterday a bunch of Tea-Party-folks gathered outside Perriello's office to voice their displeasure. They'd been enflamed by a couple of local Rush-Limbaugh wanna-be radio hosts and they came out with their signs and their megaphones.

Calling U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello a "traitor" and a "coward," roughly 125 protesters picketed the freshman Democrat’s Charlottesville office Thursday to denounce Perriello’s vote for an energy bill that aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

and

In the crowd at Thursday’s protest, there were several yellow Gadsden flags that depict a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don’t Tread on Me." Protesters held signs with such slogans as: "Hooray!! Another Political Prostitute;" "Tom Perriello is a Cap + Traitor;" and "Perriello — An Incompetent, Cowardly, Treasonous Fellow."

One protester questioned whether climate change is real, prompting a loud cheer from the crowd. "It’s a way to control us!" one man yelled.

This is too much. This is Michelle Bachmann/Joe McCarthy tactics. Tom Perriello a traitor??? Or a Coward??? This is a man who after graduating from Yale Law school, turned down seven figure salaries to move to Sierra Leone to work with child soldiers on a peacebuilding mission. A Coward? He went to Liberia and smuggled an arrest warrant out of the country that helped get dictator Charles Taylor deposed? A Traitor?...

I have nothing more to add to what JohnCos writes at Daily Kos, except to agree wholeheartedly with John's comments that "I'm worried about what's happening in America where people like Tom Perriello are quickly called traitors and cowards for a (good) vote they make."

P.S. Waldo Jaquith has some thoughts as well, calling the protestors "A bunch of angry, unhinged teabaggers" and commenting that the "group seems to consist entirely of Joe the Plumber Mini-Mes." Waldo concludes, "I forget, are the Tea Party people still pretending that they’re nonpartisan? Or have they dropped that schtick? The important thing is that they’re the future of the Republican Party. God love ‘em for that."

UPDATE: Check out this reportf rom NBC29.