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Loading ...Rep. Frank lashes out at protester for Nazi remark
08.19.2009 9:30am EDT
(Dartmouth, Mass.) Rep. Barney Frank lashed out at protester who held a poster depicting President Barack Obama with a Hitler-style mustache during a heated town hall meeting on federal health care reform.
“On what planet do you spend most of your time?” Frank asked the woman, who had stepped up to the podium at a southeastern Massachusetts senior center to ask why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy.“Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it,” Frank replied.
He continued by saying her ability to deface an image of the president and express her views “is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.”
Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, sought to assure more than 500 people attending the rowdy meeting that the average taxpayer wouldn’t be hurt by plans currently under consideration in Congress.
Some of those attending the meeting organized by the Democratic Town Committee of Dartmouth shouted and booed as Frank and others addressed the crowd.
At one point, Frank asked the crowd: “Which one of you wants to yell next?”
Several people wanted to know how the government would pay for the reforms without worsening a growing federal budget deficit.
At least two dozen protesters gathered in small groups outside, handing out pamphlets and holding signs criticizing the overhaul, Obama and Frank. Some of the posters read: “It’s the economy stupid, stop the spending” and “Healthcare reform yes, government takeover, no. Tort Reform Now”
Audrey Steele, 82, from New Bedford, said she does not want the government to get involved with health care because “they just make a mess of everything,” referring to the $700 billion bailout of financial institutions that was used to pay for lavish conferences and hefty executive compensation.
Others at Tuesday’s meeting were more supportive of reform.
Dr. Sheila Leavitt, a physician from Newton, said she hoped for changes that would support primary care physicians who aren’t paid as much as specialists. She said some of the rowdy critics at Tuesday’s meeting appeared to be using the same “talking points” as those who showed up at similar meetings around the country.
He should have slapped that dilusional woman right off the stage with her very own stupid sign. How can a person in the modern world compare anyone to Hitler??? Did Obama Massacre hundreds of thousands of Jews? Did he reinstate slavery? Did he start a pointless war in hopes of striking oil?
You Right-wing Retard-icans really need to analyze the past 9 years. Your beloved Bush Admin is more comparable to Hitler. THEY sent thousands of our own troops to their deaths. They invaded countries by misleading the US population into thinking they were harboring terrorists and WMD, only to find out the worst terrorist there was the dictator, and years and years later…still no WMD. They administered cruel and detestable interrogation techniques.
I betcha Bush got a hefty kick-back from Cheney for all that work Halliburton(sp) got, Huh?
Eat my Liberal ass.
The Republican Party seems to be just a modern day extension of the Confederate South still spewing BS from their leathery lips.
Hahaha! Go Frank go!
At last … a Democratic politician willing to fight back! Hooray! I wish all the other Democrats (Blue Dog or otherwise) had the balls to do the same thing.
The Democrats are obsessed with getting a “bipartisan” bill passed. Bullshit … the Right Wing Nut Jobs that pass call themselves Republicans in Congress will never vote for anything they come up, regardless of how many “compromises” are in the bill. The Democrats need to move on, forget bipartisanship, and pass a bill that will help all Americans. Then maybe we can get on with other pressing matters – like repealing DADT and DOMA!
I think we should protest the protesters. We (Democratic party) need to stand up to these retarded Republicans. Republicans are all GREED. They don’t want to pay higher taxes, they don’t want to let the distraught or poor to receive free medical services that they can’t afford. It’s all about the money that they are getting. All they see is GREEN. Not Green as the environment but GREEN as in money. Greed is a terrible thing running this country. We need to stop this NOW. What is with the gun carriers at these conventions? Greed and violence should not run our country.
We should stand up against threats to our country, but being uneducated and yelling about stuff you have no idea about is so WRONG. We hold the majority in Congress, let’s pass this damn bill.
FINALLY. A representative willing to put those morons in their place! EVERY representative who has to put up with such idiotic nonsense should do likewise!
Hurrah for Barney Frank! He’s got the balls to speak his mind to the ignorant misinformed Republicans whose politians are brainwashing them more than they already are with their lies. He does not have to worry because anyone as stupid as that would never vote for him anyway!
Republicans seem to exist in a world of their own making with no resemlance to the actual world, WMD, Enhanced interigation techniques that they truly believed weren’t torture. Councelling for Medical powers of Attorney, their idea, is now DEATH PANELS. War on Drugs which they seem to take with abandon! Ask Rush! he hasn’t met a pain killer he didn’t love. Family Values like cheating on your spouse. Christian values a wife and a concubine! Please stop me if I misunderstand! Why compromise if they will never agree.
Well said, Michael! They have a type of tunnel vision which cannot be adjusted or reasoned with. They just see and hear what they want to and disregard intelligent discourse. They are truly pathetic. I know. I live in Virginia and am surrounded by them!
Are people like Ms. Steele simply right-wing tools are do they truly not understand that Medicare is a government-run health insurance program?
ABOUT TIME – Sometimes you just need to tell an idiot they’re an idiot.
OMG…we all were thinking it, but Barney *said* it. You GO, girl!
IMO, it’s really important when dealing with one of these people to be pretty blunt about saying, “You’re ignorant…and your ignorance is hurting your country.”
When someone says, “The government messes everything up, we *must* respond “Bullsh*t.” The slightest bit of education and “thinking it through” will come up with tons of examples of the federal government having done some very impressive things.
Don’t let them lie. And don’t debate ignorant accusations. Label the ignorance and demand that they educate themselves before dialogue can continue.
You can lead an uneducated ignoramous to the classroom, but you can’t make them learn.
SNAP!…It Figures! The only Democrat with the BALLS to give the RUDE SOB’s the responses they deserve is GAY! GO BARNEY! GIVE’EM HELL! and teach some of your “soft spoken”, wimpy, little pussy collegues how to dish it out too! About time the Democrats start to act like they OWN the White House, Senate AND House of Representatives! Don’t need no Republicans “permission” or buy-in for anything…JUST F*CKING DO IT!
Go Barney !!