When right-wing extremists attack:
“If you thought the health care debate was heated in Washington, outside the Beltway it’s gotten downright hostile. From Tampa, Florida, to Austin, Texas, to Romulus, Michigan, town hall meetings over health care have turned chaotic; death threats against members of Congress, taunting and shouting, even fistfights. Democrats claim it’s all political theater organized by reform opponents.” –NBC’s David Gregory
Nothing like hyperbole:
“The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they’ve given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They’ve become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.” –Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein
Race bait:
“I think 45 to 65 percent of the people who appear at these groups are people who will never be comfortable with the idea of a black president.” –Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker
“[W]hat concerns me is when in some of those town hall meetings including the one that we saw in Missouri recently where there were jokes made about lynching, etc., you start to wonder whether in fact the word socialist is becoming a code word, whether or not ‘socialist’ is becoming the new N-word.” –MSNBC’s Carlos Watson
Stupid white people:
“Angry old white folks are storming into town halls all across the country spewing lies about health care reform. Let me set the record straight early on: These folks [are] dumber than Joe the Plumber.” –MSNBC’s Ed Schultz
Democrats are usually so innocent:
“The nation’s drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall…. The White House and allies in Congress are well aware of the effort by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a somewhat surprising political alliance, given the industry’s recent history of siding with Republicans and the Democrats’ disdain for special interests.” –Associated Press writer David Espo (Democrats are the Party of special interests — unions, trial lawyers, homosexual activists, environmentalists, etc., ad nauseum.)
