We have to listen to them very carefully - they are practically SCREAMING what they will do when they have the power (note to FReepers: “Having the power” does NOT mean “winning elections”). The Left is no longer about elections.
The Left, through individual leftists, has “let slip” their desires regarding any who oppose them.
They seek to use power, preferably State power, to punish and kill any who oppose them in the most humiliating manner possible.
And this humiliating extermination is not even with the purpose of being a warning to those who might oppose them in the future, but as a matter of vengeance towards those who would DARE to question their superiority.
You're exactly right, and this development is a wonderful thing. A vast number of people on the far left feel this way. Now that it's out in the open, it's legitimized to them. They can say, "See, even the Vice President, Congressmen and the New York Times agrees with me. The Tea Party is a terrorist group."
This isn't a popular view nation-wide, in fact, just the opposite. But it does help draw the battle lines, which the liberals want more than anyone. The scene that's being painted is that they are the Big Machine, and we are the Little Guy. That's an awful rhetorical mistake for them, to be painting themselves as the old establishment, fighting against you pesky kids trying to have passionate beliefs and fix problems. It puts them on the wrong side of the argument, and is exactly what Alinksy would have cautioned against.
In fact, the Tea Party / conservatives have turned Alinskyism on its head, and are progressing with an improved version of it. So, be glad that we're getting the mask to slip and get them on record with their real beliefs. It's a necessary step for the events to come.