Obamascare Freakout 2010: Racism! Homophobia! Presidential Death Threats!

Various ugly things were yelled at reporters and Democratic lawmakers outside and inside the halls of
power in Washington, D.C., as the monumental health-care overhaul
was heading for a vote Sunday. Some gems follow . . .
]


“Baby Killer!”
-Hurled
in the United States House of Representatives–by an unidentified
congressman sitting in the Texas or California section on the
Republican side of the aisle–at Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) Sunday as he urged his fellow Democrats to
vote down a Republican amendment on abortion services in the mammoth health-care
legislation. Stupak, who is considered the leading anti-abortion Democrat, had held out
his support for the legislation until President Barack Obama issued an
executive order restating the ban on federal funding of abortion. (Reported by the Washington
Post)

“The people who know won't give it up.”
-Rep. John Campbell (R-Newport
Beach), who was originally thought to be the lawmaker who shouted “baby
killer,” to reporters. Campbell denied having said it, then gave up that he
believed the disgusting remark came from a Republican Member of the House sitting a row
behind him, where the Texas Republicans usually sit. He added that it was spoken in a Southern accent and was “clear as a bell.” (Reported
by the Washington Post)

UPDATE: Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) admitted today that he made the remark, apologized and explained his outburst was “mistakenly interpreted.” He says he didn't mean Stupak was a baby killer but that the legislation is a baby killer. Uhhh. . . riiiiiight.

“If I lived in DC i'd shoot him myself.. Point Blank. Dead Fucking Serious.”
-The “tweet” of Jay Martin, a twentysomething, African-American, Vatterott College grad, to @BarackObama, the Twitter account used by Organizing for America to promote the president's agenda. Martin, whose handle is @THHEEE_JAY, had to be informed that he may have committed a federal crime. (Reported by Gawker)

“Nigger!”
-Yelled by a protester in the teabagger crowd at Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), a hero of the civil rights movements, as he headed into the Capitol to vote on Obamacare. (Reported by the Huffington Post)

“Barney, you faggot.”
-Yelled by an older protester in the teabagger crowd as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) rounded a corner to leave the Capitol building. The surrounding assortment of other mostly older folks then erupted in laughter. Frank shrugged it off as no big whoop. He was, after all, born in New Jersey to a father who ran a shady truck stop and did a year in the can. Actually, it may have been one of the nicest things anyone's yelled at Frank lately. (Reported by Talking Points Memo)

“I am grateful for the
thousands
of patriots who are storming the Capitol today protesting government
healthcare and defending freedom. Pray”
-The “tweet” of United States Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), which appeared on Twitter about the same time Reps. Lewis and Frank were being called “nigger” and “faggot” by some of those same patriots. (Via Twitter)