Southwest Washington Rep. Brian Baird was an early target of threatening remarks last year after he compared the heated political climate surrounding health care reform debate to the climate in the spring of 1995, when Timothy McVeigh was plotting the Oklahoma City bombing.
“Brian … You think we’re all Timothy McVeigh types, huh?” a caller said in a message left on Baird’s Washington, D.C., office phone on Aug. 11, 2009. “I’d keep a close eye out for those Ryder rental trucks if I were you. You never know when one might show up. Bye.”
The incident was reported to the Capitol Police, which turned the matter over to the FBI, which investigated it as a possible terrorist threat.
The FBI tracked down the caller in Kansas, concluded that he did not pose a threat, and closed the books on the case — admonishing the man that there were better ways to express his emotions.
