In case anyone was wondering whether yesterday’s standoff between the man in the red van near the White House was a distressed constituent from out of town, sure enough, he was. In fact, the man, Lowell Timmers, is from Cedar Springs, Mich., a small exurban town north of Grand Rapids called Red Flannel Town USA. The town’s biggest event, Red Flannel Day, says that Cedar Springs has “small-town charm and home-grown characteristics.”

Yesterday’s episode may remind locals of the standoff with the infamous Tractor Man, who crashed a John Deere into Constitution Gardens claiming he had explosives. Traffic was shut down near Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, clogging traffic going to and from Virginia, just as the United States launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The Post, via AP and WJLA, reports that Mr. Timmers is “upset because a relative is in the custody of immigration authorities and faces the possibility of deportation.”

Tractor Man, aka Dwight Watson, was angry with the government and as the Post put it at the time, wanted to inform the “American public about the plight of farmers or ‘die trying.'”

Do you have any fond memories of Tractor Man saga?