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.

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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:

[WillyT]

1. More... BREAKING: An Ugly Scene - TNR

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You may have heard or read about the ugly scenes on Capitol Hill yesterday, when a few conservative activists shouted racial and homophobic epithets at Democratic lawmakers. Today the conservative activists are back. And so is the ugliness--only this time, a few Republicans were actually encouraging them.

That's an incendiary charge, I know. But let me describe what just transpired here inside the House of Representatives:

Moments ago, while members were on the floor for a vote, a protester stood up in the visitor's gallery and began shouting "Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!" Clerks quickly removed him. But as they were doing so, a number of Republicans--at least half a dozen, from what I could see from a few feet away--were cheering the man.

Representative Barney Frank, who was the target of yesterday's homophobic epithets, told reporters he was "appalled" and that he felt the Republicans "were encouraging him to resist. ... I've never seen members of the House cheering on a guy resisting being kicked out of the gallery. It's a dangerous situation and the Republicans are cheering him on."

Frank says he approached one of his Republican colleagues--I think he said it was Missouri's Roy Blunt--and told them his caucus should not be stoking this kind of emotion. Blunt apparently replied by saying he wasn't one of the Republicans cheering.

Meanwhile, conservative activists are staging a rally on the North lawn, which is right outside the House chamber. A trio of Republicans went to the House balcony and started waving hand-made signs saying "Kill...the...bill" as the crowd chanted. As a colleague of mine remarked, that scene was more farcical than scary--like a scene out of Evita. But there's something just a bit unsettling about all of this.

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More: http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/breaking-ugly-scene

:mad:

[babylonsister]

2. "These clowns are out there encouraging violation of the law..." I

sincerely hope someone pays for their juvenile actions. This is NOT how this body is supposed to operate. If this is allowed to pass, what's next?

Pretty disgusting.

[Xenotime]

3. Watching right now and Pugs are to blame. They have no respect.