This has Gotten Out-of-Hand

Filed in National by on March 20, 2010

It’s bad enough that we had to endure a Summer and Fall of “Crazy Eileens” disrupting meetings with their anti-health care reform rhetoric and their crazy birther BS, on Congressmen calling the POTUS a liar while on the floor of the House, of self-styled commentators on FAUX news calling  progressives a cancer on socitey, but now they’ve gone too far –    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea-partiers-call-lewis-nr-frank-ft-at-capitol-hill-protest.php?ref=fpblg.  When did it become permissable in the course of debate to call people N***** and F****t?  I’m not asking my fellow progressives on here, I’m directing this at those conervatives that read this blog and comment here, either openly or anonymously.

About the Author ()

A rabble-rousing bureaucrat living in Sussex County

Comments (32)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. skippertee says:

    I was surprised this was covered by the main stream media.ABC at 6:30.
    The people responsable for whipping these saps into this type of frenzy[Beck,Limbaugh,FOX News et al.]should be indicted for inciting a riot.The Republican party has some responsability for their continuing lies and distortions about the pending health-care legislation.Peaceful demonstrations are fine.MOBS are dangerous.

  2. anon says:

    Yes, the racial and sexual epithets have made the national news (but not the gun threat posters). Teabaggers have outed themselves in full public view.

    Plus, all week long teabaggers have been trooping in to meet their representatives directly, to personally display their derangement, misinformation, and sheer craziness. Those meetings must be excruciating.

    I think the teabaggers may have finally neutralized themselves. The fact that their epithets are making mainstream news is a sign the establishment is no longer giving them a pass.

  3. a.price says:

    here is my shocked face.

  4. anon says:

    The dog whistles are now in audible range.

  5. pandora says:

    The “N” word, the “F” word, spitting on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-M.D.), a brick thrown through U.S. Rep. Slaughter’s office window and signs that read “Warning: If Brown Can’t Stop It, A Browning Can.”

    So many lines crossed, and only a fool can’t see where this is heading.

  6. bamboozer says:

    No ones surprised, the slurs and threats were always there, just muted. Now it’s out in the open and likely to be far worse when the bill passes. Look on the bright side: America gets to see the Tea Party for what it really is.

  7. skippertee says:

    The class shown by Cleaver,Frank and ?[brain freeze]in the face of such despicable,uncivilized behavior was sublime.

  8. I found this part of the story very disturbing:

    After that incident, Capitol police threatened to expel the protesters from the building, but were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed. Tea party protesters equipped with high-end video cameras were summoned to film the encounter and the officers ultimately relented.

    WTF is wrong with the Capitol police? This makes me extremely worried for the safety of members of Congress. If the Capitol police were understaffed for the job, they should have not let so many people into the building. This is just unacceptable.

    The media had to cover the issue, at least two organizations were present when the events occurred – CNN and NBC.

    Also, I think members of the Republican party, the ones who have been addressing the crowds should address what happened and apologize. I know of at least 2, Michele Bachmann and Mike Pence.

  9. MJ says:

    And there is a need to tie the GOP to the teabaggers every chance we get. They are in bed with each other – I’m hoping we don’t see what type of bastard children are born of that marriage.

  10. anon says:

    WTF is wrong with the Capitol police?

    This needs to be investigated. Either they were understaffed, or made a serious error in judgment, or were in cahoots.

  11. Skippertee, one of the victims was civil rights hero John Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Here are some good links:
    A first hand account of the mood and disrespect of the protestors from a Congressional staffer.
    The New York Times covers the incidents.
    The man that spat on Rep. Cleaver was arrested, but Cleaver is not pressing charges.
    Here’s a link summarizing the various incidents.

    Clyburn diagnosed the cause exactly right:

    Asked if he wanted an apology from the group of Republican lawmakers who had addressed the crowd and, in many ways, played on their worst fears of health care legislation, the Democratic Party, and the president, Clyburn replied:

    “A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this is not about health care a all. And I think a lot of those people today demonstrated that this is not about health care… it is about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful.”

    Will the media finally, finally notice that a lot of this anger is motivated by racism?

  12. I agree with Tim Ryan. Members of Congress who addressed the Tea Party rally need to apologize:

  13. skippertee says:

    First off:Thanks, UI.
    Second:I will always respect Congressman Ryan for taking to the house floor and calling for an apology from Bachman,Pence et al.
    I’ll probably never agree with him politically,but I WILL respect him.

  14. Mike Matthews says:

    Skippertee,

    I think you’re thinking of tea-partier PAUL RYAN from Wisconsin. He’s a GOPer who’s in tight with the Tea Party folks. This is Tim Ryan, Democrat from Ohio who’s given some fiery floor speeches in the past.

  15. skippertee says:

    I stand,actually sit,corrected.
    For the record:I HATE PAUL RYAN!!!

  16. Ah yes, Paul Ryan, the guy who wants to privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into vouchers. Yes, it would have shown some class if he had denounced the teabaggers. From the Republican side we’re only hearing crickets right now.

  17. cassandra_m says:

    But they no longer have any credible cover to claim that there is nothing about the teabaggers that isn’t about their bigotries.

    And isn’t it amazing that none of them sees fit to apologize or call for better behavior.

  18. delacrat says:

    “The man that spat on Rep. Cleaver was arrested, but Cleaver is not pressing charges.”

    If Cleaver is not pressing charges, he’s a punching bag and deserves to be spat on.

  19. pandora says:

    A punching bag and deserves to be spat on? Come on, delacrat. What’s to be accomplished by pressing charges other than giving this nutcase a platform? Let’s leave the low road to the tea partiers – they soooo own it.

    And no one – ever – deserves to be spat on.

  20. just kiddin' says:

    Pelosi that twit just killed Alan Graysons Medicare for All amendment…the fix is OUT! States ability to enact their own single payer plans…OUT! These dems will pay hell for there stupidity in not protecting the citizens to continue to fight for a better bill. There will be NO amendments permitted….vote on this awful screwed up insurance company giveaway! Only the dumbed down, and libs will be celebrating this mess.

  21. skippertee says:

    Man from Tan was just on Meet the Press looking a whiter shade of pale.

  22. Scott P says:

    Let me say this again, JK, “The states ability to enact their own single payer plans” is NOT OUT. There’s something called “The Waiver for State Innovation”. You can find more info here. To the best of my knowledge, this is still in the bill, as Bernie Sanders referenced it a week and a half ago. It’s not the ideal situation, but it does open the possibility that a state could try a single payer plan. If it succeeds, it’s inevitable that it would spread to other states. But again, I’m pretty sure your comlaint is not valid.

  23. Republican leaders are now denouncing the incidents:

    On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) denounced the use of such slurs “in the strongest terms possible.”

    House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the “isolated incidents” were “reprehensible.”

    Later on the same program, Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee’s first black chairman, agreed that the incidents were “reprehensible,” and added, “we do not support that.”

    “What you had out there yesterday were a handful of people who just got stupid and said some ignorant things,” Steele said.

  24. Von Cracker says:

    Aw, the Dr. Frankensteins are shunning their creation now?

    Precious.

  25. cassandra_m says:

    Very Clever, skippertee!

    Wonder how many of these fools will take to the floor of the House today to apologize for the teabagger behavior.

  26. Newt Gingrich today:

    Of the many reasons to oppose health care reform, this is probably the worst one yet. From today’s Washington Post:

    Former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive reform. Calling the bill “the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times,” Gingrich said: “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

    So, Gingrich is anti-civil rights? He thinks you shouldn’t do the right thing if it means you might not be re-elected?

  27. MJ says:

    I find it ironic that the teabaggers and Lyndon LaRouche cultists (yes, they’re still around) compare POTUS and the Democrats to the Nazis. By their very actions of shouting people down and advocacy of mob rule, they are emulating the very brown shirts that were responsible for bringing Hitler to power.

  28. cassandra_m says:

    I hope this isn’t a repeat, but Rob Tornoe has reports a first hand account of the teabagger behavior yesterday, including:

    African-American Representatives were greeted by racial epithets. One woman yelled “You’re not as safe as you think you are!”

    They are who we always thought them to be.

  29. Another Mike says:

    The comments were vile and disgusting, as are the people who made them. But are they illegal? People are allowed to say stupid, distasteful things without interference from the government. Maybe that’s why the Capitol Police didn’t do anything. Unless threats were being made, I’m not sure there was any legal recourse.

    Spitting, on the other hand, is assault. That would explain why that person was arrested.

  30. db says:

    Another Mike,
    With all due respect if you think incitement to violence and despicable (not merely distasteful) comments are appropriate and free speech protected than you are either a total moron or an apologist of the type who facilitates the violence that eventually follows the acceptance and excusing of such behavior. Shame on you as well as them.