![\"teaparty-blog.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.courant.com\/capitol_watch\/teaparty-blog.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nAmong them was Bill Shields, who sells flags on New Haven’s Long Wharf. He was dressed in a Revolutionary War soldier’s garb, including the traditional tricorn hat.<\/p>\n
They stood in the rain, with several carrying smaller versions of the flag, a historic banner named for Revolutionary War-era patriot Christopher Gadsden. The flag, which features the image of a coiled rattlesnake, has long been a symbol of American defiance; over the past year, it has been adopted by Tea Party activists across the nation.<\/p>\n
The rattlesnake is an appropriate symbol for the Tea Party movement, said Joe Markley of Southington, a former state senator from Southington who is once again seeking his old seat. <\/p>\n
“A rattlesnake is a uniquely American animal,” he said. “It’s a shy, careful animal that doesn’t look for trouble …and it gives warning with its rattle before it strikes. But it is an animal that will only be pushed so far and when its pushed too far it will strike, and when it strikes, it strikes effectively.”<\/p>\n
Bob MacGuffie, an activist from Fairfield, said the flag is an emblem of the philosophy of limited government. “Don’t tread on me. Step back. That’s what this movement is about,” he said after the rally.<\/p>\n
ON COURANT.COM<\/b><\/h4>\n\n- VIDEO: Jim Vicevich On The Flag Controversy<\/a><\/li>\n
- Your Take: Should Flag Have Been Allowed To Fly Over Capitol?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Gadsden Flag Creates Little Controversy In South Windsor<\/a><\/li>\n
- Haar vs. Green:<\/span> Courant Columnists Debate<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Markley, who was first swept into office in the Reagan landslide of 1984 and played a part in the fight against the income tax in the early 1990s, said Tea Party activists have been reawakened and will have an impact on November’s election.<\/p>\n
Several candidates attended this morning’s rally, including Jerry Labriola Jr., a Republican running for Congress in the 3rd District, Rob Merkle, who is running for Congress in the 4th, and Warren Mosler, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
<\/p>\n
State Capitol Police, the agency in charge of managing the state’s flag policy, had initially approved the Connecticut Tea Party Patriots’ request to hang the Gadsden Flag over the Capitol. But several lawmakers complained that the flag was a political symbol and did not meet the restrictions of the policy, especially since the Tea Party group had planned to host a rally for candidates after the flag-raising ceremony. <\/p>\n
“This is a great flag and it’s an insult to this country and to the men [of the] Revolutionary War who fought under this flag to say the flag is not worthy to fly over the state Capitol building,” Markley said.<\/p>\n
Markley and several other speakers specifically criticized state Democratic state Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven, who questioned whether the flag met the state’s policy but had nothing to do with state Capitol Police Chief Walter Lee’s decision to revoke permission for the flag-raising.<\/p>\n
“To have the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate and Mike Lawlor, who’s been here for 25 years, to say ‘Oh politics at the state Capitol, God forbid there should be any politics at the state capitol,”’ Markley said, drawing laughs from the small crowd.<\/p>\n
He called Lawlor “a public nuisance.” <\/p>\n
“He has has stood up and made himself a target,” Markley added. “The man who stood up for the state income tax, the man who tried to takle [away] the right of the Catholic church to govern itself…he is going to be target number one of the Tea Party movement statewide.”<\/p>\n
Markley said the group will submit another request to raise the flag at the Capitol. The group is considering holding an event on June 2 and may make the request in conjunction with that, he said.<\/p>\n
(PHOTO BY ANDY ZAREMBA \/ FOX CT)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A day after they were denied permission to hang the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag at the state Capitol, about two dozen Tea Party activists gathered in front of the building this morning to protest the decision. Among them was Bill Shields, who sells flags on New Haven’s Long Wharf. He was dressed in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4000,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Markley, who was first swept into office in the Reagan landslide of 1984 and played a part in the fight against the income tax in the early 1990s, said Tea Party activists have been reawakened and will have an impact on November’s election.<\/p>\n
Several candidates attended this morning’s rally, including Jerry Labriola Jr., a Republican running for Congress in the 3rd District, Rob Merkle, who is running for Congress in the 4th, and Warren Mosler, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
<\/p>\n
State Capitol Police, the agency in charge of managing the state’s flag policy, had initially approved the Connecticut Tea Party Patriots’ request to hang the Gadsden Flag over the Capitol. But several lawmakers complained that the flag was a political symbol and did not meet the restrictions of the policy, especially since the Tea Party group had planned to host a rally for candidates after the flag-raising ceremony. <\/p>\n
“This is a great flag and it’s an insult to this country and to the men [of the] Revolutionary War who fought under this flag to say the flag is not worthy to fly over the state Capitol building,” Markley said.<\/p>\n
Markley and several other speakers specifically criticized state Democratic state Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven, who questioned whether the flag met the state’s policy but had nothing to do with state Capitol Police Chief Walter Lee’s decision to revoke permission for the flag-raising.<\/p>\n
“To have the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate and Mike Lawlor, who’s been here for 25 years, to say ‘Oh politics at the state Capitol, God forbid there should be any politics at the state capitol,”’ Markley said, drawing laughs from the small crowd.<\/p>\n
He called Lawlor “a public nuisance.” <\/p>\n
“He has has stood up and made himself a target,” Markley added. “The man who stood up for the state income tax, the man who tried to takle [away] the right of the Catholic church to govern itself…he is going to be target number one of the Tea Party movement statewide.”<\/p>\n
Markley said the group will submit another request to raise the flag at the Capitol. The group is considering holding an event on June 2 and may make the request in conjunction with that, he said.<\/p>\n
(PHOTO BY ANDY ZAREMBA \/ FOX CT)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A day after they were denied permission to hang the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag at the state Capitol, about two dozen Tea Party activists gathered in front of the building this morning to protest the decision. Among them was Bill Shields, who sells flags on New Haven’s Long Wharf. He was dressed in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4000,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}