Apr 16, 2009 6:05 am US/Eastern
NYC Tea Party Protest Draws Thousands
Angry Republicans Lash Out At Obama Administration
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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DeeDee Dieffenderfer participates in a Tea Party protest at the Federal Building Plaza on April 15, 2009, in Chicago, Ill.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
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Protesters wave signs during a 'tea party' demonstration in Lafayette Park across from the White House on April 15, 2009, in Washington, D.C.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
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A group dressed in patriotic costumes protest during a 'tea party' demonstration in Lafayette Park across from the White House on April 15, 2009 in Washington.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
We all deal with April 15 differently. Some of bend to the annual income tax filing deadline by lining up at the post office for that 11th-hour post mark. Last-minute filers fulfilled that tradition at Manhattan's main post office through Wednesday evening, waiting patiently in line while a guitar-wielding accountant serenaded them.
Others, however, refused to go quietly to that filing deadline. A tax day demonstration at City Hall Park, part of the national Tea Party protest, drew roughly 5,000. It was a mix of die-hard small government libertarians and disaffected Republicans still stinging from November's Democratic victory.
Alice Kemble of Great Neck said it's a matter of philosophy.
"We're moving very quickly toward socialism," she said standing along Park Row. "It's very clear and the group here wants the free-market to reassert itself."
These Tea Party protests first sprung from the presidential candidacy of Republican-Libertarian Ron Paul and were directed against the tax policies of George W. Bush during the primary fight. Since the general election and the Democratic victory in November more mainstream Republicans have been attracted to the protests as a means of attacking the new administration.
Joe Sullivan traveled to Manhattan all the way from upstate Delaware County. For him it was all about politics.
"It's the Obama administration, it's Nancy Pelosi, it's Harry Reid, it's Christopher Dodd," Sullivan said.
Charlie Burmaster of Cortland Manor in Westchester County said the federal government's borrowing brought him to the protest.
"The problem is spending has gotten out of control," he told CBS 2 HD. "You've got an $11 trillion national debt and there's something wrong with that."
The rallies were bankrolled this year by conservative fundraisers, and pushed by the Fox News Channel. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attended the Manhattan Tea Party and dovetailed right into a live appearance on the cable network's Sean Hannity Show.
Seeking less politically charged opinion, CBS 2 HD also checked in at the tax day cocktail night at Harry's Bar at the Helmsley Hotel on 42nd Street.
Drinks were half price and taxpayers were more noticeably relaxed about there annual burden. Melody Brady of Stuyvesant Town raised a couple of eyebrows by embracing the moment.
"I find it a privilege, I really do, to pay my taxes," she said. "I use the libraries, use the roads; I use the schools, I use so many things so for me it's a privilege."
In New York City that's what we call a diversity of opinion.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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