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A Price to Pay for the Town Hall Rage
Washington Post ^ | August 13, 2009 | David Broder

Posted on 08/13/2009 9:08:56 AM PDT by La Lydia

Watching the muscular tactics being used in congressional town meetings by some opponents of health-care reform, I keep thinking somebody should remind the Republican about Bruce Alger, the first Republican congressman elected from Texas in the modern era. (In 1960), he was part of a crowd of several hundred people who surrounded Lyndon B. Johnson, the Democratic vice presidential nominee...at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas... In 1964, when Johnson headed the Democratic ticket, he got even: His coattails swept Alger out of office.

I was reminded of this saga by what happened to Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the venerable Democrat who was shouted down last week by protesters at a health-care town meeting...he was called a "fraud"...and he was booed and denounced by hundreds of others who filled the hall...Scenes like this one have filled cable TV news as Democrats across the country have been meeting their constituents during this August congressional recess...

What doesn't make the news is what the reaction is among the larger population of voters...I haven't seen any polls taken since the demonstrations began, but an editorial in Tuesday's Detroit Free Press said "the disrespect Dingell was shown in a state where he has made such a profound contribution was unforgivable."...

There have been many such editorials. And at least some Republicans are beginning to notice...But not all the GOP leaders have gotten the message. Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz...phoned me to complain that top House Republicans have not publicly repudiated Rush Limbaugh for his statements likening Obama's health policies to those of the Nazis.

Much improvement is needed in the health-care bills, but I think these angry opponents are playing with fire.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; denial; freeexpression
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Isn't it odd that Debbie Wasserman would call David Broder to complain about House Republicans not "repudiating" Rush Limbaugh? What planet does she live on? What planet does David Broder live on, for that matter? And what does David Broder's conclusion have to do with anything? Nothing he writes supports it. Does he think left-wing rags like the Free Press writing editorials will have the final say on public opinion?
1 posted on 08/13/2009 9:09:00 AM PDT by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia
Poor David is whistling past the graveyard.
2 posted on 08/13/2009 9:10:32 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam is a religion of peace, and Muslims reserve the right to kill anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: La Lydia
What planet does David Broder live on, for that matter?

Planet Beltway. Where money grows on trees and no one questions the one god - Government.

3 posted on 08/13/2009 9:10:47 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: La Lydia

“I haven’t seen any polls taken since the demonstrations began...”

Hahahahahahaha...riiiiiiiiiiiight....


4 posted on 08/13/2009 9:11:15 AM PDT by jessduntno (Privatization + Inter-State Sales + Individual Policies + Tort Reform = Healthcare Reform)
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To: La Lydia

The ‘price’, Mr. Broder is that you and your ilk are finally being rightfully ignored....

We’re not listening to our ‘betters’ anymore....


5 posted on 08/13/2009 9:13:02 AM PDT by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
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To: La Lydia

Got everything twisted and backwards there jackass. Keep up the good work!


6 posted on 08/13/2009 9:13:33 AM PDT by mkcc30 (Their lying tongues will become their nooses.)
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To: La Lydia

Broder should retire — he is irrelevant in the real world outside the beltway.


7 posted on 08/13/2009 9:14:49 AM PDT by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin - OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio - Senate 2010 ! Take Back the House/Senate! Stop ZERO!)
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To: La Lydia
Broder.

"The Dean Chief Dodo Of Washington Journalists."

8 posted on 08/13/2009 9:15:29 AM PDT by angkor (The U.S. Congress is at war with America.)
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To: La Lydia

The horse is out of the barn on this one......


9 posted on 08/13/2009 9:16:21 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: La Lydia

David Broder....most Americans do not have the health care you enjoy.

When a politician from the south side of Chicago tells them he is going to “reform” their care, they get nervous.

Very, very nervous.

When he tells them he is adding 40 million people to the rolls and that will SAVE THEM MONEY, they about stoke out, David.

They don’t have the money and contacts you do, David. They look at Chicago and numerous other cities in which “community organizers” have had their way and they know nothing good is coming their way.


10 posted on 08/13/2009 9:17:01 AM PDT by Brugmansian
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To: La Lydia

I can’t wait to see the media reaction when they find out many of the protestors hate the Repubs too.


11 posted on 08/13/2009 9:17:05 AM PDT by NotSoModerate (Report dissenters to snitch@whitehouse.gov for a $4,500 tax credit)
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To: La Lydia

David Broder: Just another old man who is out of touch. He has to cite something from 45 years ago to make his point? Lyndon Johnson is long dead and TX is now Republican. Perhaps in the short term, Johnson was able to postpone the inevitable, but in the long run, his Texas was lost.


12 posted on 08/13/2009 9:18:09 AM PDT by keepitreal (Don't tread on me)
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To: La Lydia

What about the price the democrats will pay for trying to shove their reforms down our throats that no one wants....Remember Hillary and 1994


13 posted on 08/13/2009 9:19:12 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: La Lydia

No one should be repudiating Limbaugh. He didn’t make the statement. Pelosi did.


14 posted on 08/13/2009 9:19:21 AM PDT by Sunshine Sister
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To: jessduntno

Hard to see “any polls” when your head is lodged in an anatomically impossible position. That he could write that in a publication that considers itself a “newspaper of record” and a “major metropolitan newspaper” is breath-taking in what it says about the entire newspaper industry being in denial. David: we don’t care what you say, we don’t believe you, and you are a textbook illustration of intellectual dishonesty. If you decreed the sun rises in the East, we would go outside in the morning to check and make sure.


15 posted on 08/13/2009 9:19:42 AM PDT by La Lydia
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To: NotSoModerate

I don’t hate the Repubs, its just that they are too far to the left and too unprincipled for me to ever be a member of their party.


16 posted on 08/13/2009 9:19:43 AM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: Uncle Ike

Another elitist jackass.


17 posted on 08/13/2009 9:20:45 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: La Lydia

ummmmmm, maybe Davy took to the keyboard a little too soon. Today’s Rasmussen poll shows BHO at 47% approval.

The bubble these people live in, the Dems in power, the MSM, is extraordinary. They have completely forgotten it was Hillary Care that afforded Gingrich to pull off the ‘94 majorities.


18 posted on 08/13/2009 9:22:01 AM PDT by EDINVA (A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul -- G. B. Shaw)
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To: La Lydia
LOL!! "Muscular tactics"?! Sounds like the work of...The "well dressed mob"
sopranos
19 posted on 08/13/2009 9:22:50 AM PDT by PowderMonkey (Will work for ammo.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

David Broder is still alive? Perhaps he’s late for his manditory end of life counselling.


20 posted on 08/13/2009 9:23:23 AM PDT by CPT Clay (Pick up your weapon and follow me.)
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