A Tea Party 'assassination' plot?

Exhibit A: A severed gas line at a home Tea Party activists believed to belong to Dem Tom Perriello. As the FBI investigates, accusations are flying

Two Virginia Tea Party activists posted what they said was Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA)'s home address Monday, urging people upset over health care reform to go "drop by" and "express their thanks" for the Democrat's "yea" vote. The next day, the house — which actually belongs to Perriello's brother, Bo — was vandalized; the FBI and local authorities are investigating a severed propane line that Bo and his family say they discovered on their screened-in porch Tuesday. (Watch Tom Perriello's comments on the incident.) While no charges have been filed, some commentators are alleging that Tea Partiers have taken political activism too far:

This was a clear "assassination attempt": Venting a flammable gas at what you're told is a politician's home "has to be viewed flatly as terrorism and political violence," says Jeff Fecke in Alas a Blog. Conservatives need to strongly warn Tea Partiers that violence isn't justified, since they've spent a year whipping up hysteria that health care reform is "literally a communist plot to destroy America."

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