Barney Frank: 'Mass hysteria' On Capitol Hill - TPM (From Today)

[WillyT]

Barney Frank: 'Mass hysteria' on Capitol Hill
Christina Bellantoni | March 21, 2010, 2:48PM

<snip>

Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling "you're a disgrace to your office" and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill.

In a moment of apparently unscripted political theater, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched arm in arm — with civil rights pioneer John Lewis — across the Capitol complex while protesters yelled at them and police held a barricade.

The Pelosi disruption came inside the Cannon office building, where Democrats where whipping the final votes for the historic health care overhaul. When Pelosi said "We're doing this for the American people," a protestor yelled "you're doing this TO the American people!"

Someone in the crowd yelled "faggot" — an epithet overheard by a POLITICO reporter — at Frank, who is gay. A group of Catholics supporting reform sang a chorus of "we love you Barney, oh yes we do."

"It's like the Salem witch trials, and healthcare is the witches," Frank said. "There is mass hysteria."

Some Republican lawmakers encouraged the protesters.

As the House was voting on an unrelated bill, Republican Reps. Tom Latham of Iowa, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Greg Harper of Mississippi stood on south balcony off the House floor - an area known informally as "the beach" — holding pieces of paper that read "kill the bill" to a group of cheering protestors. Some Republican lawmakers waved a "Don't Tread on Me" flag from the balcony, causing the crowd to go wild.

Inside the House chamber, a protester was ejected by Capitol Police after yelling from the House gallery.

Frank was visibly angry with his GOP colleagues whom he believed goaded the protesters.

"Did you guys see the Republicans encouraging the disruption?" Frank left the House floor to tell about 15 reporters. "These clowns are out there encouraging violation of the law and making the job of the guys up there harder. It's really disgraceful."

Outside the Capitol on a brilliant spring afternoon, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched across the Capitol complex — after Lewis gave a speech to the Democratic caucus that motivated the impromptu walk.

<snip>

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34765.html

I'm betting that the Republicans invited all these asholes into the capitol to roam the halls, and fill the galleries. And if that is true...

they shouldbe forced to own anything that happens!

:mad: