CHICAGO – Here’s a lesson for all political debate moderators in the age of blogs, Web videos and Glenn Beck: If you resist a call for the Pledge of Allegiance, you do so at your own risk.

Ask Kathy Tate-Bradish of Evanston, Ill., who moderated the League of Women Voters forum for Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Joe Walsh, her Republican challenger.

A man interrupted the event this month in Grayslake, Ill., to ask if the pledge would be recited. When she told him no, audience members booed and said the pledge anyway.

The incident has inflamed the conservative blogosphere. Beck assailed Tate-Bradish and the League of Women Voters on his Fox News show this week.

Tate-Bradish, a retired teacher, notified police after taking dozens of phone calls and e-mails at home and viewing “scary” comments in online forums, she said.

“They believe that I, personally, Kathy Tate-Bradish, mother of three, am planning to bring this country down,” she said.

Jan Czarnik, executive director of the Illinois League of Women Voters, said she reported to the FBI that death threats had been posted online against herself and Tate-Bradish.

Walsh supporter and tea party activist Joseph Ptak, of Island Lake, Ill., said he spoke up for the pledge in honor of veterans, students and anyone in the room who wanted it said.

“This country has done so much for my family,” said Ptak, who said he spent 10 years in the Air Force Reserve.

Tate-Bradish, who admits to being a “proud liberal,” plans to attend comedian Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity this weekend in Washington, D.C.

 

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