Joined at the hip, or stupid and gullible, or other?
Assume for the moment that this AP story is untrue. What does it say about how these politicians view the media — as stupid and gullible or as willing accomplices in whatever their agenda of the day might be?
Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told a reporter that as he left the Cannon House Office Building with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of the civil rights era, some among the crowd chanted “the N-word, the N-word, 15 times.” Both Carson and Lewis are black, and Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones also said that it occurred. “It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis,” said Carson, a large former police officer who said he wasn’t frightened but worried about the 70-year-old Lewis, who is twice his age. “He said it reminded him of another time.”
Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is black and said police escorted the lawmakers into the Capitol. Cleaver’s office said he would decline to press charges, but Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail later: “We did not make any arrests today.”
Clyburn, who led fellow black students in integrating South Carolina’s public facilities a half century ago, called the behavior “absolutely shocking.” “I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus,” Clyburn told reporters.
Of course if the story is true, the behavior described above is despicable. However, some of the facts seem at odds with the congressmen’s statements. For example, the spitting incident would seem to be some sort of assault, and it is hard to square the statement about “not pressing charges” with the fact that no one was even arrested. Moreover, the video evidence currently available does not support the charges that the congressmen have made. We’ll have to see if and how this story develops.
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:18 am
I’m surprised it took these RACIST Democrats this long to play this crap. The racial divide in this country would have “progressed” much further with out these hustlers and all the Democrats and “Progressives” standing in the door.
You Bastards!!
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:11 pm
It’s a shame you don’t see the tea partiers for what they are, a freewheeling group of nasty people. They are the first to cite the Vietnam protests as disgusting, and how fast they forget (because they don’t object to wars) that then the cops were there waiting to stamp down the freedom they enjoy today while they prance around demanding their own right to do whatever they damn well please. Cowards.
Conservative bloggers have been quick to yell “race card!” and smear Lewis and Cleaver as liars. In order to buttress their point, numerous conservative bloggers like Gateway Pundit have posted a short video of members of the Congressional Black Caucus walking through a crowd of protestors, during which no racial epithets are clearly audible. I can’t believe I actually have to type this sentence, but here goes: 48 seconds of video does not prove that Lewis was not called the n-word at any point during what was seemingly a much longer walk.
To give you some idea of the level of investigative reporting going into debunking these allegations, Jim Hoft uses the video to proclaim: “No one screamed “n***er.” No one screamed “f*ggot.” No one was spit on.” Aside from the fact that Barney Frank isn’t even in this video, the fact that the incident doesn’t appear on camera here is, in Hoft’s words, “video proof that these horrible leftists are liars.” You tell ‘em, Jim.
Once again, though, I want to focus on the idea that it is somehow Democrats who have made the health reform debate about race. Here are a couple flashbacks from arguably the two most prominent conservative media figures in the country. Last month, “colorblind” Rush Limbaugh attacked reform as a “civil rights bill,” probably assuming that his audience would realize he meant that as an insult. Later in the same rant, he called the bill “reparations.” Limbaugh wasn’t alone in classifying the bill that way. In July, Beck stated outright: “The health care bill is reparations. It’s the beginning of reparations.”
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Wow, Steve, you are a nasty piece of work yourself, whatever the Tea Partiers may or may not be.
Your politics don’t have anything to do with helping people or creating a strong society–it’s all about justifying your hate. Most of your comments are ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagrees with you or presents data which might tend to undermine your preferred positions, and utterly free of rational argument or data.
Frankly, I don’t know what happened at that demonstration. But I’ve been to enough anti-war demonstrations to know that leftists are at least as bad–I’ve seen plenty of pro-Communist slogans, anti-white racist statements, anti-male sexist statements, even anti-straight heterophobe statements. So I guess these things happen at demonstrations. And there are far too many progressives like you who base their politics not on what is good for your fellow citizens, but what feeds your need to hate your fellow citizens.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I agree with Neil, except it should read “All your comments…” Our Steve is a nasty little tool, not quite sharp enough to realize that he will be among the first against the wall.
I’m for sharing with freeloaders as soon as they are the ones getting called into work in the middle of the night. I don’t feel like working very hard for Steve, since he’s not carrying his share of the load. We had a word for his type back in the Marine Corps days, but it would get my comment flushed.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:55 pm
It seems video evidence refutes the claims … and odds are it was some Democrat “spy” if it happened at all. In any case … it is certainly at worst some odd ball jerk. And it fits with the Obama racism theme .. to disagree with the Won is racist.
But the timing is right for it to help provide cover for the momentum of the health care countdown … huge legislation that allows a bare 3 days to sort through the deceptive monstrosity.
So they will vote in the bill that even Pelosi says .. “no one wants to vote for the senate bill”. What a huge orchestrated fraud.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.
Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality?
And, by the way, I greatly respect the Marines.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:23 am
I think you conflate affirmative action with racial equality… That’s not what you wrote, but that’s what has happened after a lifetime of Civil Rights Bureaucracy in action. My wife is an immigrant, from Japan, so we know how this works in practice. That’s not a complaint. My wife could have, but refused to, take her driver’s test in Japanese. The probability of a policeman speaking Japanese, or a road sign in Japanese, here, approximates zero. Government in action.
I suspect our disagreement is more about methods than objectives. You can’t give to someone without taking from someone else. That has never worked well in human history, and I don’t expect this will either. I’m not even in that bracket that is going to be taxed to pay for this healthcare mess, so why should I care, right? A lifetime of experience has taught me who pays. My state is broke, but the civil servants are doing quite well.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:12 am
What I read in Gingrich’s statement, Steve, is an honest assessment of how passage of the Civil Rights Act affected the Democrat Party. Whether you think the Act had its intended effects or not, his statement is true.
YOU read a true statement about the Democrat Party passing the Civil Rights Act even though it was not in their political interest to do so, and the thought that enters your head is “Bigotry”. Sounds like somebody is projecting.
But like I said, all you have to contribute is hate and slime.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:22 am
Don’t feed the troll, folks. “Steve” does not discuss anything, nor add anything, ever, not in any of his “comments”.
As Niel said, all that Steve ever has “to contribute is hate and slime.” Don’t waste your time responding to anything he says.
March 24th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Steve is immature and self-centered. He thinks he “wins” an argument if he is the last to speak. He assumes everyone will view the event in the same way as that expressed by the last “debater”. At this, Steve is a “master”….
March 24th, 2010 at 7:37 am
If it indeed happened at all (and it would be totally out of character from any Tea Party activity I’ve attended, and that’s a few), what better way to provide the press with a discrediting soundbite than to send a few SEIU or ex-ACORN thugs to an open, public demonstration to shout and spit at the congresscrappers? They’re called “agents provocateurs,” and it’s a textbook trick of leftists and anarchists to discredit counter-demonstrations.
We’ve had black, asian, and hispanic, and I would guess, gay speakers and audience at the tea party functions I’ve seen, …and there was only a group of Americans there, without hyphens…no racism, no bigotry, no assault, but a lot of genteel anger…like your grandma would show when you did something bad. That Genteel anger will appear in the voting booths in a few months.