Ah so this is the compassion and understanding, laced with love and respect, that all the liberal posters are so fond of stating that their party has. Now I understand, you have compassion...but only if we believe as you do and keep in step.

Wow, the Delegate got a taste of how nasty Democrats can be toward people who think differently than they do. I'm sorry the Delegate got treated so badly, but I'm glad it was MY side that welcomed him into the fold.

This is proof that there is no diversity of thought in the Demonrat party. Toe the progressive line in every aspect or your a
racist, bigot, teabagger, idiot, ______fill in the blank.

The Democrats are THE most bigoted and closed minded people out there.

It seems that the democrats that complained are indeed the KKK in thought and mind.

And we have been told that they are the party of inclusion? Tolerance?

Reading the hate and bigotry of the homosexuals against anyone who claims any religion and then this, the left seem to be the most exclusive gang around.

The in power democrats, like old school republicans that don't get the benefits, fear the Tea Party because returning to the basic foundation of this country means an end to the nonsense that keeps the establishment afloat.

I would have been impressed by this Democrat who went with what they believed instead of what party lines dictate, but then, quitting immediately because your colleagues disapprove...not as impressive.

When they wonder why things go the way they do in 2012...it won't be because of the joining, but the reaction the democrats had to it that ensure it.

Too bad Delegate Anderson messed with the Party of Intolerance. Oh, wait, wasn't that the evil Republicans? Now I'm confused.

Hey Republirats, were just taking a cue from your childish examples.

Thanks for being so adult for the last several years where you've left us no choice but to race right to the bottom along side you.

Keep watching that Fox News. Mr. Goebels would be proud of how propaganda when repeated over and over can still convince the simple masses to repeatedly vote against their own self interests and go along with anything.

Nice America you've made here. You should all be so proud.

Failin, um I mean Palin in 2012, yea!

HEAVEN FORBID AN ELECTED DEMOCRAT IN MARYLAND BE AGAINST LOWER TAXES AND SMALLER GOVERNMENT.

He asks for votes in the 43rd District last election to support the DEMS. Shame on him!

I'd say the Tea Party philosophy is pretty simple:

Let's have a government that spends only within its means.

Democrats - are you saying you're really opposed to this???

The Tea Party is NOT a Republican group. If you are going to report a story, do it factually.

This is why the Founders thought political parties were a problem.

Racists. The students should protest them not some eyesore former drug store that should be razed

Hope and change!

What secrets were revealed to Anderson in the day or so he was a member of the Tea Party that made him say "It's almost like I joined the Ku Klux Klan." I hpe he wasn't sworn to secrecy, but with these secret society types, you never know.

Ah, the Dems feeding on their own. Why doesn't this surprise me? Del. Curt Anderson had the temerity to follow his conscience only to be re-assimilated by the Borg.

"These jack-boots are made for walkin'
and that's just what they'll do
one of these days these jack-boots will just walk all over you"

@Erik, reread the blog post. The blogger didn't say that the Tea party was a Rebublican group. The blogger quoted Del. Maggie McIntosh as saying the Tea Party is a subset of the Republican Party. Know the difference. True beleivers in both parties are intolerant of other views. Del. Anderson was trying build a bridge to bi-partisanship. Unfortunately, in a one-party state bridges like that are torched quickly by the party in power. As bad as it is in my home state of Maryland, it's much, much worse in Utah, the state I live in now!

Perhaps when we're prepared to get past the 5 or 6 hot button SOCIAL issues (like, oh lets say allowing gay marriage rights and fostering access to safe and legal early abortions and fixing the 14th so that illegal border crossing criminals being called immigrants won't keep happening and repealing the misguided prohibition laws and aligning the concealed carry rights with common sense)...

then we can all move past the circuses those topics foist on us rather than onto the genuine governance issues that are the rightful business of legislators and actually move the country toward some meaningful growth.

I'd like to see that.

Thanks very much for stepping up for the taxpayer Delegate Anderson. Too bad you lost the vote of all the wellfare mothers in your distict over it. I guess this was just another case of "the man" trying to keep you down?

Right, because Republicans never eat their own for attempting to work with Democrats. McCain skated by unscathed in 2000, and Sununu jumped all over the offer for a cabinet position without changing his mind. Republicans that openly disagree with the barely sane Limbaugh are allowed to hold their different opinions.

Get real, I would love if my reps worked with Republicans, but Republicans won't work with them. The tea party isn't trying to take this country back to fundamentals; it's trying to rewrite history in order to call the fundamentals what they want. There is no working with wingnuts on the right anymore than there is with wingnuts on the left.

Back we go to the People's Republic of Maryland.

I am appalled that this turn-coat, uncle-tom like (WBAL's C4) is allowed to remain Chair. I am even more appalled that his democratic Co-delegates have not demanded his immediated ouster as delegate chair. Even so, remember voters, you put the same crap in, you get the same results. By the way, the Tea Party is just the Al-qada of the republican party.

The tea party isn't interested in good government, they are interested in rhetoric. They do not govern, look at what is happening in congress. I have no idea what Curt was thinking, I'm glad his fellow dems set him straight. For the record, I'm a dem and I want lower taxes too, but I also understand we have to pay for government services.

Yes, how dare the Democrats expect a Democrat to act like a Democrat.

Remember though, the Republican Party is the one with the purity tests.

Also - yes, joining the Tea Party is like joining the KKK in that they share same attitudes about race.

IPFrehley has a terrible reading comprehension issue. The KKK reference was because of the reaction Anderson got from the intolerant left, his own party, that cannot stand an independent thinker.

Democrats. The dregs of society.

DON'T CUT OFF THE GRAVY TRAIN!! WE CAN'T MAKE IT IN THE REAL WORLD!!!!!

There's no compassion for people who side with the folks that use fear and anger to motivate political policies of hate.

The Tea Party is Republican from top to bottom. It was put together by GOP hands like Dick Armey and paid for with money from GOP bigwigs and their corporate buddies. And their express purpose is to destroy Democrats. If they were serious about the issues they say they care about, like spending and government intrusion, then they absolutely would have sprouted up in the previous decade when Bush was spending wildly and violating our Constitutional rights. But they didn't -- because their real agenda is trashing everything the Democrats try to do.

So of course he can't join the teabag caucus -- it's an arm of the opposing party.

@Off a Cough:

Got a shock for you. The blue states are the net providers of federal money. It is the red states that are the net consumers of tax dollars -- can't survive without welfare money from Uncle Sugar.

And another idiotic Republican talking point goes up in smoke.

There's no compassion for people who side with the folks that use fear and anger to motivate political policies of hate.
by: BMAC1206 Counter Guy

Man! I know what you mean about those Democrats!

Curt, you ought to run for mayor's office in Baltimore City. Just run on the platform that you will cut the property tax rate in half. I have a feeling you would win in a landslide. I also know you would be able to lessen the rate, rid the city of 40000 vacant houses, and start building the middle class again. I hope you are on the ballot.

@ "exactly right"

Wow, I'd have to go all the way back to the third grade to remember the last time I heard the dreaded "I am rubber, you are glue" defense.

Yes yes yes to Curt running for Mayor! The guy bothered to find out why the other side thinks as it does, and his own people threatened him with expulsion. All he did was try to understand difference -- how is that a crime to the party that claims diversity! Please Delegate Anderson, skip City Council President......RUN FOR MAYOR. We need people like you who are trying to build bridges. Republicans will vote for you!

Has this country totally gone F$%^&*@ mad! These tea party people totally sound like the bigot racists of the KKK exactly. Their movement has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with taxes or smaller govt., it has to do with the racist fuc@#$s not being able to stand a black president, even though he took over a job none of the old white sob's wanted to have anything to do with... And yes, I am white and living in FL believe it or not!

So much for standing up for what you believe in or being an independent thinker. Curt, you are a coward!

The posters from the infamous and lockstep party of no claiming foul. LOL!

Baltimore Delegation: Tolerance is for thee - not for me.

Curt Anderson represents the 43rd District. I live there; and it is 93% Democratic. It is a very diverse area that includes the area east of Charles Village, East Homeland/JHU, Loyola University, Notre Dame College, Morgan State University, and Guilford. In other words, a lot of very highly educated, Liberal Democrats. Some of the smartest people in the country. Evidently, he doesn't want to represent his constituents any more given his brief flirtation with the TP Caucus. This has pretty much flushed his political future down the toilet.

P.S. TP's and Repubs, your governor, Rick Perry, has just rung up a 28 BILLION DOLLAR budget deficit and is now asking for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to balance his education budget. LOLO>! Hypofreakingrits!

The Party machine in action. As a Democrat, I want to run but where to? We are a two party state (yes, there are Republican bastions through most of the state except the urban areas). Yet, both parties offer nothing but extremes and both are run by operatives who whip the members into conformity under threat of ostracism. What happened to Democracy being based on a melting pot of ideas subjected to reasoned debate?? Someone give me an optioned that doesn't include a donkey or an elephant.

Scott said that the 43rd District is 93% democratic. In the next sentence he said it is a very diverse area. So the people all look different but still think the same. I would prefer diversity of thought over diversity of looks. But hey, thats just me.

Will MSNBC do a 2 hour special on Del. Anderson's "experience"? Should we expect him at a White House awards ceremony?

Mr. Anderson, as a life long city resident
I am ashamed and embarrassed by you joining the so call tea party. When the original tea party was formed blacks were in slavery, lynched and raped. During the writing of the constitution the founding fathers owned slaves and as you should know , blacks were considered 3/5 of a human being. You are an IDIOT!!!!!!

"You can't violate the philosophy of the Democratic party."

What philosophy is that?...to run the state and country into the ground like you've been doing! Anderson is a sell out who should have told a few people where they should shove it!!

Way to stick to your convictions - CHICKEN!

A little odd that anyone could think there could be any common ground between a member of the Baltimore City Delegation and the Tea Party, considering the scathing report they released recently called:
"New Urbanism Forced on Rural Communities" where they went all scorched earth on everything metro-area populations hold dear. Specifically they oppose on principle anything that would increase the value of urban property or improve the quality of life in urban areas relative to the values and conditions relative to the sprawling suburban developments in rural areas which lost the most value following the recession and spikes in fuel prices.

So no, there is no connection and this isn't an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" scenario. Just because they opposed spending billions on roads, doesn't mean they want to spend billions on causes dear to the metro-area populations. Quite the opposite actually.

It's a good thing that Tea Party supporters are ushering in civility by pointing out how inferior others are.

Yeah...the democrats are oozing with civility...