Charles Alan Wilson, the crazed, concealed-weapon-toting righty charged with threatening the life of U.S. Senator Patty Murray, apparently attended a Tea Party rally outside a Murray event in Yakima, only days before his arrest:
On April 1, the previous Thursday, over 100 tea party protesters rallied outside a Murray appearance at the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce, according to a report in the Yakima Herald-Republic.
In the April 4 message, Wilson allegedly said:
“Oh, you were in Yakima last week. How come you didn’t give a big speech to the people outside waiting to see you? Yeah, we were outside waiting for you, hopefully you would come out and explain to us how come this health-care bill that you rallied on so highly is going to create the biggest drain in American history.”
One can only imagine the tragedy had Murray addressed the small crowd of angry Teabaggers. “I do pack, and I will not blink when I’m confronted. … It’s not a threat, it’s a guarantee,” Wilson later told an undercover FBI agent.
The official Tea Party folks claim Wilson was never a member, and of course disavow his threats after the fact, but that’s not really the point. Condemning the actions of those inspired by one’s hate-filled, violent rhetoric, while continuing the rhetoric unchanged, is meaningless. Charles Alan Wilson is the logical product of the radio and TV hate-talkers, the Teabagger fervor and their sponsors in the Republican establishment. Wilson may be a malignant tumor on the Teabagger movement, but he’s their tumor.
I’ll save the bible study for Sunday morning, but my advice to Rob McKenna, Dino Rossi and other ambitious Republicans hoping the embrace of the Teabaggers might boost their electoral fortunes is to choose their friends wisely.