Protesters hold 'tea party' at LOVE Park

A group at Center City's LOVE Park joined tens of thousands of people across the nation for a "tea party" yesterday to protest government spending, particularly President Obama's economic bailout efforts.

A reporter estimated that there were 200 protesters assembled for the rain-soaked rally at JFK Plaza. Diana Reimer, the organizer, said there were "way more than 200."

About 4,000 gathered in Cincinnati and another 4,000 in Lansing, Mich. About 1,000 rallied in Des Moines, Iowa, according to the Associated Press. Another 1,000 assembled in Montgomery, Ala.

A short distance from the original Boston Tea Party, a few hundred protesters gathered on the Boston Common, some dressed in Revolutionary-era garb and carrying signs that read: "Barney Frank, Bernie Madoff: And the difference is?" and "D.C.: District of Communism."

Reimer said she had taken her cues from taxdayteaparty.com, which said on its Web site that the protests were inspired by the CNBC financial commentator Rick Santelli, a former hedge-fund manager who has accused the Obama administration of "promoting bad behavior" by subsidizing "the losers' mortgages."

Organizers said the movement had developed organically through online social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and through exposure on Fox News.

Although they insisted it was a nonpartisan effort, it was seized on by many prominent Republicans who view it as a promising way for their party to reclaim momentum.

For Reimer, 66, of Lansdale, it was personal.

She said she had to return to full-time work as a Macy's sales associate to make ends meet after losses in her retirement investments, including 30 percent to 40 percent of the value of her house, she said.

"I've never done anything like this before," Reimer said about organizing the rally.

She said her main message was "repeal the pork and cut the taxes."

Speakers at the Center City rally complained about Washington's lack of fiscal restraint.

"Our revolution is not an armed conflict," Jesse Civello, 16, a Cheltenham High School student, told the crowd. "Quite the contrary, our revolution is a peaceful yet powerful symbol to our neighbors, to our leaders, and to the world that the American people will no longer sit back and watch the debt of our country soar well over $11 trillion."

He was followed by financial author Paul Karcher, who got cheers by saying, "I guess I'm someone who could be called a clinger. I cling to my guns and my religion."

Nearly every one of the 20 or more hand-lettered signs had a different message. Among them: "Even God only requires 10 percent"; "You most likely don't know what socialism is"; "Three months to destroy what we've had for 233 years."

One young woman's sign showed a cartoon of a pig on a plate being held up by Obama under the words Stimulus Bill 2009.

"I've got some strong feelings in the way that government has gone too far," said Dennis Stanton, a maker of truck-wash systems. The Huntingdon Valley resident, who held a sign that read "Innovation, Not Taxation," said the country was on the wrong track with stimulus packages and bailouts.

If businesses can't make it, "let them fail," he said.

"It's not only about President Obama; it's about everyone in Washington," fitness instructor Marcia Robbins, 47, said, adding that she and her husband, Drew, took time off from work to attend the rally.

"It's about government being limited, not being all-powerful," her husband said.

One protester wore a message on his back. "I just 'HOPE' I have some of my 'CHANGE' left in four years," read a sticker on his jacket.