Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/barney-frank-confronts-wo_n_262682.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...682.html</a> I'm posting it from here instead of from You Tube because the comments at Huff Post are LP appropriate Barney Frank finally, FINALLY calls this nonsense what it is. Tonight, he's my hero. My apologies for so many new topics in a row, but I finally feel as if I have something to be happy about. Liberals are finding their voice instead of watching conservatives misrepresent everything they say and everything they stand for. Enough!
Originally Posted By Mr X It's really sad, isn't it (the YouTube thing, I mean). Doesn't matter what Congressman Frank is discussing, the vile comments are always the same. Pathetic, really. Anyway, good topic. Thanks.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Get ready for the usual personal attacks on Frank, though, as opposed to commenting on what actually happened here.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Someone dishes out nonsense at Barney Frank and he dishes out nonsense back. He has never struck me as acting like a controlled politician. The "Nazi" remark was stupid and ignorant (if something can be both stupid and ignorant). His retort was just as ignorant but more troublesome coming from a member of Congress...in my personal opinion. I work for local government. If a resident said something like that to me in a public forum and that was my retort I'd be looking for a job the next day. That isn't an assumption. It is a fact. I've seen it happen to people.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Perhaps. But Frank is well aware that he needs to be voted out of office so he's a little freer to say what he actally wants to. And Lord knows it was time SOMEBODY said it. Remember too that Frank is both Jewish and gay (and thus somebody the actual Nazis would have killed twice if they could have) so it has to be particularly galling to him to hear the Nazi label thrown around so stupidly.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Three cheers for Barney Frank. Look, I am all for civil discourse. But the looney tunes, cheered on by the right wing radio talkers, have had their time distracting with gibberish. It's time to push back, and I hope that representatives on BOTH sides follow Frank's lead on this and start losing patience with morons talking about "Nazi policies" and "death panels" and all the rest. Her stunned, embarrassed expression was a beautiful thing. This halfwit thought she was going down there to disrupt and distract, and instead, she walked away looking like the braying jackass she is. She didn't ask a legitimate question, and she got the answer she richly deserved. It's about damn time.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Someone dishes out nonsense at Barney Frank and he dishes out nonsense back.*** How exactly would you have replied if you were him?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I don't think politicians need to stand there and treat people trying to use distraction and intimidation to stifle debate with respect or deference. This loon got a lesson that free speech is a two-way street. She had her say, and she got her answer. What should he have done, spent 20 minutes trying to educate this woman on the reasons why Mr. Obama is not a Nazi sympathizer? What he did was out flanked her. She and supporters like her expect politicians to stand there, embarrassed and shamed and silenced, and then they post those videos on YouTube and right wing websites, like a trophy. Instead, what has been working backfired, big time. SHE wound up looking like the stooge. Frank came off like a grown up, weary of listening to a toddler's temper fit.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I would have simply said, "ma'am, I'm not going to respond to you when you speak like that" and would have moved on. He is a person of stature and should act as such. But, I am guilty of expecting more from our politicians.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I am guilty of expecting more of our citizenry. It saddens me that a sizable chunk seems to be happy living in Krazyville and are interested in turning question and answer discussions into the Jerry Springer Show.
Originally Posted By Mr X Expecting more, how? By groveling and capitulating? They aren't allowed to call an idiot an idiot? Frankly (ugh), I think it's time to shut these lunatics the hell up.
Originally Posted By Mr X Agreed with post 12 100%. And before you cite precedent, there IS no precedent here. Not even before, when Clinton was King (or Carter, or any other Democrat). Did Clinton bashers show up with semi-automatics? Did they carry pictures of Carter wearing a Swastika? Did they claim Kennedy was a Communist? (oh, right...they did. right before they killed him)
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan In other words, if someone is legitimately concerned that their elderly mother's Medicare benefits might be reduced, ask that question. That deserves a response, an explanation. But you never get to that question if the tea baggers and tin foil hat crowd dominates the mic.
Originally Posted By mele Considering what Frank could have said to this idiot, I think he answered her question in a *very* civil way. (I loved the dumb look on her face when she realized she wasn't going to get away with her stupid behavior.)
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan And remember, too, that the people with Obama-as-Hitler photos have no interest, zero, nada in discussing health care. They hate Obama, and their mission is to see him fail. In everything and anything.
Originally Posted By barboy ----good to see a 'Frank' rebuttal to that village idiot.... or would that be a 'town hall idiot'?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>(I loved the dumb look on her face when she realized she wasn't going to get away with her stupid behavior.)<< CNN obtained documents showing she was part of a well-orchestrated plan: <a href="http://blog.gambrinous.com/wp-content/uploads/coyote_foolproof_plan.jpg" target="_blank">http://blog.gambrinous.com/wp-...plan.jpg</a>
