GOP condoned anti-Semitism at rally

[Behind the Aegis]

The day before last week's historic health care vote in the House of Representatives, an anti-health-reform rally was held on the steps of the Capitol. Initiated by the new Inciter-in-Chief Rep. Michelle Bachmann (watch your back, Sarah P!) on Fox News, it was sponsored by the House Republican leadership and billed as a GOP press conference.
At the event, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the House health reform bill "the greatest threat to freedom I have seen in my 19 years in Washington."

Really? So providing health care to the uninsured is a bigger threat to freedom than say "¦ warrantless wiretapping of American citizens or denying an American citizen the right of habeas corpus?

Never mind me. Readers all know about my "radical" views on freedom and civil liberties. But is Boehner calling the folks over at the AARP, who at the very same time were having a press conference to endorse the House bill, freedom haters, too? Somehow, I don't think my AARP-member dad, a lifelong Republican currently trapped in the Medicare "donut hole" -- one of the problems targeted by the House bill -- would take too kindly to that.

It gets worse though. Here's David A. Harris, president of the National Jewish Democratic Council:

" G.O.P. 'Tea Party' on Capitol Hill opposing health insurance reform invoked disgusting Holocaust imagery and outright anti-Semitism. Top Republican Party leaders including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) stood before a crowd that included a banner protesting health care reform and displaying corpses from the Holocaust. Yet another sign charged that 'Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds' . Such vile invocations of Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric have been condemned in recent weeks by rabbinic movements, The Interfaith Alliance, and The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants."

more...

[Eric J in MN]

1. You can't blame the speakers for signs the attendees brought. NT

NT

[Behind the Aegis]

2. No, you can't. But you certainly can blame them for lack of spine...

...after the fact for refusing to condemn the posters.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. +1

Silence is assent.

[Eric J in MN]

6. Michele Bachmann issued a statement calling the poster "wholly inappropriate"

"Sadly, some individuals chose to marginalize tragic events in human history, such as the Holocaust, by invoking imagery and labels which have no purpose in a policy debate about health care. These regrettable actions negatively shift the focus of the current discussion on this issue. The American people deserve an open and honest debate to ensure the best possible solution to our health care problems, and I agree that these unfortunate instances are wholly inappropriate."

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/11/michele_bachman_25.php

[Bitwit1234]

4. This sure knocks a hole

in their saying they support Israel and the liberals don't'

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Not really, unfortunately.

[the blues]

5. K&R

Revolting.