Several thousand jam North Shore for bailout 'tea party'

By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 11, 2009

Several thousand people jammed into Allegheny Landing on the North Shore Saturday afternoon for an event dubbed as a "Tea Party" to protest what they believe is excessive government spending to bail out faltering corporations and the economic stimulus package.

The keynote speaker was Alan Keyes, a conservative political activist and former diplomat under President Ronald Reagan.

He told the cheering crowd that had gathered next to the Clemente Bridge that while some of the blame for the nation's economic woes "can be laid at the feet" of greedy Wall Street bankers and complicit politicians, they "should go home and look in the mirror" and shoulder some of the blame for not electing fiscally conservative leaders.

The event culminated with the tossing of tea bags into the Allegheny River as a symbolic jesture that harkened back to the Boston Tea Party, the iconic 1773 event in which colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and destroyed tea in a tax protest.

Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or 412-320-7987.
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