For many weeks now, New Mexico Tea Partiers have been publicizing their planned presentation of an anti-healthcare petition to state Attorney General Gary King. This morning, it finally happened. And the excitement was impalpable.

This wasn't exactly a storming of the gates. The receptionist provided each Tea Partier (and media representative) with a red "visitor" badge; everyone was then everyone upstairs to their meeting with the AG.

SFR just popped in for a minute to snap a photo. King listened with practiced expressionlessness.


Or perhaps bewilderment...

The Tea Party's petition is here. Basically, they want King to sue the federal government to stop health care reform, on the grounds that "the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying healthcare coverage."

The Democrats' plan, they say, represents "an unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states."

At noon, the Tea Partiers will have a "[p]ost rally get together at Rio Chama Steakhouse."