"We've gotta clamp down on it." Bart Stupak
It began with Keith Olbermann who returned for one night to do a little happy dance over the passage of Obamacare—and to call for the arrest of people who were mean to Barney Frank.
OLBERMANN: Two days ago, a Tea Party protestor shouted the "N" word at Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, one of the heroes of 20thCentury America, and Congressman Andre Carson of Indiana. And another shouted anti-gay slurs at Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Capitol Hill Police confirm no arrests were made…
Yeah, maybe because no one can actually prove it even happened. In fact, the video seems to prove otherwise, while witnesses say Frank was the first to start using foul language against a group of protester.
In the wake of "stupid" Cambridge police, Duke lacrosse team "rapists," nooses hung in college dorms, and other racialist hoaxes, one might thing the media would become a little more credulous. Nope. Not on MSNBC.
The lead story on MNSBC programs for 3 days? Racist right-wingers are in revolt and they are close to all-out violence!
That would be par for the course for the network, and really, who would even notice? But it didn't take long for the Democrat leadership in the House to declare themselves the newest victim class, culminating with James Cliburn calling it "terrorism" on Hardball with Chris Matthews.
The proof? Some angry phone messages left on Bart Stupak's home phone, a rock thrown through a Democrat Party HQ window, and some harsh words yelled at poor Congressmen on Sunday by protesters.
Let's just say it. The lamestream media has given every attention-starved back bench Democrat who voted for Obamacare a reason to throw a rock through his own window—or have one thrown.
Like those aliens who always seem to land in Turkmenistan or someplace where people don't have video cameras, no one ever seems to see or record the "really bad" stuff. Heck, I got worse phone messages than Bart Stupak when I wrote a favorable review of David Horowitz's Hating Whitey for the Flint Journal.
While even on Olbermann's show, reflexive demagogue James Cliburn no doubt worried there may have been camcorders in the crowd, wouldn't cop to hearing any racial slurs; Democrats are calling out the FBI and the police to protect them.
"We've gotta clamp down on it." Stupak said on Hardball today.
Clamp down on who, Bart? Well, the most named suspects by Democrat leaders are John Boehner, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh—though anyone who denounces their unconstitutional power grab is fair game.
Keith Olbermann, in his own inimitable fashion, decided to dehumanize his opponents while calling for them to be rounded up. I wonder if this "Special Comment" sounded, as they say, much better in the original German: (click Newsreal link above for video)
OLBERMANN: Finally, as promised, a Special Comment in the wake of the passage of Health Care Reform. And it's a first step, there's a lot wrong with it, but the penalty for not paying the fine for not buying the mandatory insurance has now been reduced to nothing.
So, blessings nonetheless on those who took this first step. Pat yourselves on the back. And, tomorrow morning, get back to work fixing what is still wrong with our American Health Care system. These remarks
are about our political climate in the wake of this bill's passage.
Eight days ago, a 16-year old kid picked up a courtesy phone at a store in Washington Township, New Jersey, and announced over the public address system, quote "Attention, WalMart customers: All black people leave the store now." The boy has been arrested and charged with harassment and bias intimidation.
Two days ago, a Tea Party protestor shouted the "N" word at Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, one of the heroes of 20thCentury America, and Congressman Andre Carson of Indiana. And another shouted anti-gay slurs at Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
Capitol Hill Police confirm no arrests were made and there were no serious efforts to identify the vermin involved. Television, print, and radio news organizations will not be asked to turn over their tapes and images of the event, nor subpoenaed if necessary.
This is not to dismiss what the 16-year old did in New Jersey. But it would seem that what was shouted at the Congressmen merits at least as much investigation and hopefully as much prosecution. After all, it did occur inside the halls of Congress, a place at least as crowded as, and as sanctified as a WalMart.
But in a backwards, sick-to-my-stomach way, I would like to thank whoever shouted at Mr. Lewis and Mr. Carson for proving my previous point. [DF—Which no one but Mr. Lewis and Mr. Carson heard…]
If racism is not the whole of the Tea Party, it is in its heart, along with blind hatred, a total disinterest in the welfare of others, and a full-flowered, self-rationalizing refusal to accept the outcomes of elections, or the reality of democracy, or of the narrowness of their minds and the equal narrowness of their public support.
On Saturday, that support came from evolutionary regressives like Michele Bachmann and Jon Voight. On a daily basis that support comes from the racists and homophobes of radio and television: the Michael Savages and the Rush Limbaughs. Shockingly, that support even came, on a specific basis, from another Congressman, Republican Devin Nunes of the California 21st. "When you use totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy," he said on C-SPAN. "And I think, you know, there's people that have every right to say what they want. If they want to smear someone,they can do it."
Congressman Nunes, you should resign. You have no business opening a door for a man like John Lewis, let alone serving alongside him. And ifyou shouldn't resign for your endorsement, your encouragement, of the most vile, the most reprehensible, and the most outdated spewings of the lizard-brain part of this country, you should resign because of your total disconnect from reality.
There have been no "totalitarian tactics," Congressman. People, these few, sad people, have begun to act crazy, because it has been the dedicated purpose, the sole method and sole function of the Republican party, to entice them to act crazy.
Those shouts against the Congressmen, Mr. Nunes, were inspired not by what people like John Lewis have done in their lives. They have been inspired by what people like you have done in the last year. And sothe far right escalates the rhetoric and the level of threat, just a little more…
But Boehner's teary "shame on you" over the tyranny of the vast majority taking a scrap back from the elite clueless minority, that's just n isolated incident. Just as Congressman Neugebauer shouting "Baby-Killer" at, or "it's a Baby-Killer" during, Congressman Stupak's laudable speech last night was just an isolated incident. Just as the shouting of "N" words at Congressmen Lewis and Carson was just an isolated incident. Just as the spitting on Congressman Cleaver was just an isolated incident. Just as the abuse of Congressman Frank was just an isolated incident. Just as the ethnic slurs shouted at Congressman Rodriguez of Texas was just an isolated incident. Just as the oinking by Congressman Wilson during the President's address was just an isolated incident.
Just as whatever's next will be just an isolated incident. You know what they call it when you have a once-a-week series of isolated incidents? They call it two things. They call it a "pattern" and in the United States of 2010 they call it "the Republican Party."
American political parties have disappeared before. They are never forced out by their rivals. They die by their own hands only, because they did not know that the hatred or the myopia or the monomania they thought was still OK wasn't OK, any more. [DF—Does that include the party of slavery that fought and lost the Civil War, Keith?]
And so I offer this olive branch to the defeated Republicans and Tea Partiers. It is a cold olive branch. It is scarred. There aren't many olives on it, but it still counts. You are rapidly moving from "The Party of No," past "The Party Of No Conscience," towards "The Party of No Relevancy." You are behind the wheel of a political Toyota. And before the midterms, you will have been reduced to only being this generation's home for the nuts. You will be the Flat-Earthers, the Isolationists, the Segregationists, the John Birchers.
Stop. Certainly you must recognize the future is with the humane, the inclusive, the diverse. It is with America. Not the America of 1910, but the America of 2010. Discard this dangerous, separatist, elitist, backward-looking rhetoric, and you will be welcomed back into the political discourse of this nation. But continue with it, and you will destroyyourselves and whatever righteous causes you actually believe in. And on the way, you will damage this country in ways and manners untold. But even that damage will not be permanent…
You cannot destroy this country, no matter how hard you seem to be trying to. Nor can you destroy this country's inexorable march towards the light.
…And if someone throws a brick through the window of one of those "evolutionary regressives" from the "lizard brain parts of the country" who are trying to "destroy the country" I'm sure it will not be blamed on Keith Olbermann—who only tried to guide them back "towards the light"– but on their own "dangerous, separatist, elitist, backward-looking rhetoric," and their failure to be "humane."