All Michael Yannetti wanted to do Monday was to protest the notion of Washington bailouts and $3.6 trillion in federal spending. So he did what thousands did across the country this week: mailed tea to their congressional representatives in protest.

Yesterday, police showed up at his door.

The green tea he had mailed to the Manchester office of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter prompted the evacuation of her office yesterday. Police and firefighters were at the downtown location for about 1 1/2 hours, securing the scene and conducting field tests for possible hazardous substances or volatile compounds.

“Really, I didn’t think it was a big deal,” said Yannetti, a dentist who lives in Pelham. “As far as I know, this was a mainstream thing.”
Fox News has reported about the tea protests for weeks, he said. And Yannetti received an e-mail that designated Wednesday as the day to send tea to your congressman, he said. He put the tea in an envelope with his name and return address and wrote “tea protest” on the outside, he said.

I guess you cannot be too careful these days but obviously somebody on Shea-Porter’s staff overreacted and wasted a whole bunch of taxpayer money.

These Congressional offices in their home states and the United States Capitol had better develop a protocol because with the unhappiness with Congress and the Obama Administration, they will receive many more such TEA PARTY protest letters as April 15 approaches.