Tea Partiers Call Lewis 'N!gger', Frank 'F@ggot', At Capitol Hill Protest

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Brian Beutler

Tea partiers and other anti-health care activists are known to get rowdy, but today's protest on Capitol Hill--the day before the House is set to vote on historic health care legislation--went beyond the usual chanting and controversial signs, and veered into ugly bigotry and intimidation.

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Andre Carson (D-IN) related a particularly jarring encounter with a large crowd of protesters screaming "kill the bill"... and punctuating their chants with the word "***."

Standing next to Lewis, emerging from a Democratic caucus meeting with President Obama, Carson said people in the crowd yelled, "kill the bill and then the N-word" several times, while he and Lewis were exiting the Cannon House office building.

"People have been just downright mean," Lewis added.

And that wasn't an isolated incident. Early this afternoon, standing outside a Democratic whip meeting in the Longworth House office building, I watched Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) make his way out the door, en route to the neighboring Rayburn building. As he rounded the corner toward the exit, wading through a huge crowd of tea partiers and other health care protesters, an elderly white man screamed "Barney, you faggot"--a line that caused dozens of his confederates to erupt in laughter.

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.

After the caucus meeting, TPMDC's Evan McMorris-Santoro caught up with Frank, who reflected on the incident.

"I'm disappointed at a unwillingness to be just civil," Frank said. "[T]he objection to the health care bill has become a proxy for other sentiments."

"Obviously there are perfectly reasonable people that are against this, but the people out there today on the whole--many of them were hateful and abusive," Frank added.

Asked by TPMDC whether today's protesters were more hateful than at other rallies, Frank took issue with party leaders for aligning themselves with the movement.

I do think the leaders of the movement, and this was true of some of the Republicans last year, that they think they are benefiting from this rancor. I mean there are a couple who--you know, Michele Bachmann's rhetoric is inflamatory as well as wholly baseless. And I think there are people there, a few that encourage it.

"If this was my cause, and I saw this angry group yelling and shouting and being so abusive to people, I would ask them to please stop it," Frank concluded. "I think they do more harm than good."

Shortly thereafter, the same group of people surrounded Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) as he entered a first-floor elevator. Above the cacophony, I heard one man call Waxman a "crook" and a "liar."

"This is incredible," House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told reporters of the slurs. "It's shocking to me." He said he hadn't heard such vitriol since March 15, 1960 when he was protesting segregation laws that forced him to sit in the back of buses. "A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this, is not about health care at all," Clyburn said. "I think a lot of those people today demonstrated this is not about health care."

What is it about, a reporter asked?

"It's about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."

link

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea-partiers-call-lewis-nr-frank-ft-at-capitol-hill-protest.php?ref=fpb

Talking Points? :rolleyes

[Danno 1,228]

Politico added a little more context to the story which the above leaves off for obvious reasons.

<<<It was a tense scene outside a meeting of Democratic lawmakers as a 100 or so protesters chanted "kill the bill," and one man launching a homophobic slur at Rep. Barney Frank.

Frank, who is gay, was leaving the Longworth House Office Building when a man yelled a charged homophobic slur at the Massachusetts lawmaker.

Other protesters quickly admonished the shouter, with one woman yelling back, "We don't need that."

When Rep. John Lewis said he was voting for the bill, someone yelled, "Baby killer."

Later, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said that he heard from Lewis that another protestor later called him the N-word. A Lewis staffer confirmed that Lewis had been the target of that slur.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34747.html#ixzz0imopY8Zz

If someone really did call Lewis a ###### and it was loud enough for him to hear it, THAT would have been caught on mic as there were a sea of media all over the place.

Until MSNBC has it on continuos loop..... I ain't believing it.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Politico added a little more context to the story which the above leaves off for obvious reasons.

Bullitico to the rescue. Aren't those the same fellas that just fell for a memo hoax on the doc fix?

[peejay 327]

Tea Partiers Call Lewis 'N!gger', Frank 'F@ggot', At Capitol Hill Protest

Most people don't agree with what these people in the crowd said, but I don't believe it is fair to insinuate that everyone in the crowd is guilty. That is just not accurate.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

http://www.aolnews.com/healthcare/article/raucous-ugly-build-up-to-house-health-care-vote/19407962

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Most people don't agree with what these people in the crowd said, but I don't believe it is fair to insinuate that everyone in the crowd is guilty. That is just not accurate.

No, Tea Baggers are simply deeply passionate, highly caring, and classy individuals with an axe to grind, and if they cross the line we should simply chock it up to a few bad apples in their bunch.

[peejay 327]

No, Tea Baggers are simply deeply passionate, highly caring, and classy individuals with an axe to grind, and if they cross the line we should simply chock it up to a few bad apples in their bunch.

Are you attempting to be witty? I don't think you succeeded.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Yawn

If someone shouting from a crowd makes the whole crowd guilty, then, all Dimocrats are Alinskyites based on the actions of this Congress and the present administration.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yawn

If someone shouting from a crowd makes the whole crowd guilty, then, all Dimocrats are Alinskyites based on the actions of this Congress and the present administration.

Of course, shouting epitaphs would not dismiss the movement as a whole, any more than the burning of car dealerships, and the spiking of trees has ended the environmental movement, or the throwing of blood by naked models has compromised the animal rights movement.

[Peikko 1,575]

There are people guilty of trite opinion pieces on all sides of the political spectrum - the smart thing to do is ignore it.

[Danno 1,228]

Yawn

If someone shouting from a crowd makes the whole crowd guilty, then, all Dimocrats are Alinskyites based on the actions of this Congress and the present administration.

That brings up a good point.

Seems the LEFT has been working desperately to paint the Right in general ......and especially the TeaParty here lately, with the much over played label "Racist".

So far they have produced a few Photo-shopped protest signs and perhaps a few odd balls in the crowd who might fit their template.

Meanwhile, the right has worked feverishly to paint the left as Socialists, How? By posting the words and legislation of their leaders.

This ones a Classic, take note of the faces behind her as she puts her foot in her mouth.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Isn't having a black congressional caucus and not a white congressional caucus racist to begin with?

[Jenn! 918]

Of course, shouting epitaphs would not dismiss the movement as a whole

No, I wouldn't think so.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

No, I wouldn't think so.

In contemporary usage, epithet is sometimes used to refer to an abusive or defamatory phrase, such as a racial epithet. This euphemistic use is discredited by Martin Manser and other prescriptive linguists.[7]

Noted.