A Minneapolis 'End the Fed' rally on April 25, 2009 (Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent)

An “End the Fed” group that will rally this afternoon outside the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank hasn’t felt a backlash since Wednesday’s arrest of James von Brunn in the fatal shooting of a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Von Brunn, who mixed anti-Semitism with antipathy for the Federal Reserve, served six years in prison for his 1981 attempt to take Federal Reserve board members captive.

Conservative Web outlets with whom von Brunn consorted quickly moved to dissociate themselves from the 88-year-old white supremacist after Tuesday’s shooting.

But von Brunn’s anti-Fed crimes and comments haven’t affected the local End the Fed group, according to spokeswoman Melissa Hill, although she noted that the Holocaust Museum shooting was only two days ago. “It’ll be interesting to see at the rally,” Hill told the Minnesota Independent this morning.

“I’m hoping it doesn’t become a big issue because that guy was a hardcore Nazi,” Hill said. “At our meetings, no one’s come out with that crap. If they did, they’d be kicked out.”

Hill explained that among End the Fed groups across the country, Minnesota’s is far from von Brunn’s rightwing extremism. The Minnesota group “leans towards the left, because of our location,” she said.

Today’s rally is the third the group has held at the plaza in front of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters on the downtown Minneapolis riverfront. They seek to draw attention to the Fed’s role in the current economic crisis, the country’s monetary policy and the federal bailout of the financial industry — and ultimately to get the laws creating the Fed repealed.

They’re also urging passage of a bill in Congress to audit the Federal Reserve Bank. Since the group’s last rally in April, the bill, authored by End the Fed hero Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, has 220 co-sponsors – enough votes to ensure passage. Supporters in Minnesota include all House members except Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar. Two Democrats, Reps. Tim Walz and Collin Peterson, have joined the state’s Republicans in backing the bill.

Hill isn’t holding out much hope that the rally will change the holdouts’ minds. But she said the bill has gained the support of a number of Democrats, including (yesterday) Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

The rally starts at 3 p.m., with a speech at 5 p.m. by former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr’s partner on the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential ticket, small-government author and talk show host Wayne Allyn Root.

Fellow Georgian Bob Barr, flying the Libertarian flag, is also ready to fill McCain’s spot at the University of Mississippi. “It’s time that at least one of the two leading presidential candidates show leadership and provide the American public an opportunity to witness an open and fair debate, based upon substance and issues rather than sound bites and rhetoric,” Barr said in a statement.

No word on whether Chuck Baldwin or Charles Jay are willing to take time out from their undoubtedly busy campaign schedules to make the trip to Mississippi.