Earlier this week, we posted the press release from the national teabagger group about their big rally here in DC today:

Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest grassroots organization, today announced that it will hold its first “Continuing Revolution Rally” outside of the U.S. Capitol challenging Congress and the members it helped sweep into power to take swift action on the budget. Tea Party stars in Congress such as Reps. Mike Pence and Michele Bachmann will join thousands of Tea Party activists to send a message to the rest of Washington. Thursday’s rally is co-sponsored by Let Freedom Ring, the Institute for Liberty, and Smart Girl Politics.

Yep. All the big names in teabagging were combining forces to show members of Congress how powerful they are. Thousands were expected. It was going to be HUGE.

This morning, the Moonie Times, the favorite paper of DC right-wingers, piled on. The paper headlined news that the teabaggers were coming to DC — not just coming, they were going to storm Capitol Hill.



Oops.

It was a big bust. Pence and Bachmann were there. But, they weren’t joined by “thousands of Tea Party activists.” Not even close.



Think Progress tweeted from the event:

About 100 people at today’s “major” Tea Party rally http://yfrog.com/gz1jgcrj #losingsteam

Over at DailyKos, Jed Lewison has a clip from FOX News, where they blamed the weather for the pathetic turnout. Seriously, the weather. I can report that it was cloudy and a little drizzly here in DC today. That’s it. Jed notes:

Yeah, the weather really killed the rally. Just like the only reason the rallies were so big in Wisconsin was its gorgeous mid-winter weather (complete with sunny blue skies and palm trees!). Or here’s another thought: maybe the tea party fizzle has something to do with the fact that the tea party isn’t popular anymore.

That probably won’t stop them from getting excessive media coverage, especially on FOX. But, I bet a lot of people on Capitol Hill are a lot less worried about the teabaggers today than they were yesterday.

One more thing: as we noted over at AMERICAblog Gay, the teabaggers in the House have abandoned the pretense that they are focused on fiscal issues. The House Republicans are working to end DC’s same-sex marriage law. They just can’t quit their legislative gay-bashing. And, they’d rather go after the gays than create jobs.