Posted on 02/23/2011 4:20:46 PM PST by neverdem
US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who decried violent political rhetoric after last months fatal shooting rampage in Tucson, said today he regrets urging union workers at a rally in Boston on Tuesday to get a little bloody.
I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech, the Somerville Democrat said in a statement released this afternoon. I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words."
Capuano was referring to remarks he made Tuesday at a raucous rally of about 1,000 union workers who were outside the State House, protesting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his plan to limit public employees' collective bargaining rights.
"Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary, Capuano had declared to cheers, whistles and applause from the union crowd.
His remark raised eyebrows because Capuano was among the lawmakers who were calling for cooler political rhetoric after his Democratic colleague, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the Tucson rampage that killed six other people last month.
At the time, Capuano had said the shooting was probably inevitable because of the nation's increasingly heated political rhetoric.
Many of us were afraid for a long time that something like this would happen, with the level or the tone of the discourse over the last several years," Capuano told WGBH on Jan. 22. "It's gotten violent and personal.
Capuano echoed that sentiment in a Jan. 9 interview with the Globe.
Everybody knows the last couple of years theres been an intentional increase in the degree of heat in political discourse, he said. If nothing else good comes out of this, Im..."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Thanks for the link.
Mike Capuano is from Somerville, MA - used to be the mayor here and he has always been a corrupt opportunist. Somerville borders Boston/Cambridge, so it went from being a working class city to a farleft liberal (Wanna-Be Cambridge) and illegal alien “haven”. Much of that downslide happend when this nitwit was mayor. His district (Tip O’neil’s old district) runs through much of Somerville/Cambridge - liberal groundzero.
Mikey also didn’t realize that - thanfully - liberals don’t breed and when they do they sure don’t send their kids to public schools. This means that now ~60% of the kids in High School don’t speak english (Brazilians/Columbians/etc.) and the ones that do are on heroin/crack.
This fool is to be ignored. Capuano wants to still play the tough hard knocks “blue collar” politician, but in reality he’s just another corrupt liberal democrat. When he was mayor here his nickname was Mike “My-Trunk-Is-Always-Open” Capuano. Seriously. There was never a kickback he wouldn’t take.
The funny thing is he has now bent himself so far over to the left that he wants to run for Kerry’s senate seat. Ought to be fun when folks really start digging through his past.
He just regrets everyone heard about it.
He did have a way with words...
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO A COMMUNIST DICK LIKE CAPUANO IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
A few days after my arrival, while standing in the vestibule of my hotel, my attention was drawn to a loud altercation going on at the bar, and as it was evident, from the manner of the parties, that some public question was being discussed, I listened, and ascertained that an obnoxious citizen had been seized for perpetrating a petty act of revenge on a neighbour by damaging his horse, and was that day to be publicly tarred, feathered, and escorted out of the city, as they said, bag and baggage. Having ascertained the spot selected for the scene, I determined to witness it.
Accordingly, at noon, the appointed hour, I repaired to an open spot of building-land on the Carondelet side of the city. Here I found assembled a motley assemblage of citizens, negroes, steamboat-hands, and the general riff-raff of the place. Although the crowd was not so great, the meeting strongly reminded me of those scenes of infamy and disgrace in Englandpublic executions; the conduct of the assembled throng on this occasion being the more decorous of the two.
Precisely at twelve, the mob made a rush towards one corner of the open space, from which direction I saw the culprit advancing, in charge of thirty or forty well-dressed people (the committee appointed for the occasion being among the number). He was a stout man, and described to me as a great bully; but now he looked completely crest-fallen. As the party came on, he was hissed by the mob, who, however, kept at a good distance from his guard.
A man, with a large tin can of smoking pitch, a brush of the kind used in applying the same, and a pillow of feathers under his arm, followed immediately behind the prisoner, vociferating loudly.
Arrived at the spot, the poor wretch was placed on a stool, and a citizen, who had taken a very prominent part in front of the procession, and who, I was told, was the chief cause of this outrage, stepped in front of him, and pulling out a sheet of paper, read a lecture on the enormity of his crime, which wound up with the sentence about to be enforced. When this was finished, the man who carried the tar-vessel stepped up, and began, with a scissors, to cut off the culprit’s hair, which he did most effectually, flinging portions amongst the crowd, who scrambled after them. As soon as this was finished, and the man was stripped to the waist, the brush was dipped into the pitch, and the upper part of his person lathered therewith.
Not a word escaped him, but the individual who had taken so prominent a part in the punishment, kept giving directions to the operator to put it on thick. Even his eyes and ears were not spared. As soon as this part of the operation was complete, the bag of feathers was ripped open by a by-stander, and the contents stuck thickly on the parts besmeared with tar, amidst the deafening cheers of the spectators, who were by this time in such frantic excitement that I began to fear a tragedy would ensue, especially as many of them shouted, “Now hang the varmint! hang him!”
This proposal was eagerly seconded by the mob. This was, however, resolutely overruled by his keepers. The appearance presented by the victim, in this peculiarly American dress, was ludicrous in the extreme, and looked very comfortable. As soon as this part of the exhibition was finished, a man, with a small drum, followed by the mob, with yells and execrations drove the culprit before them at a run. The poor wretch ran like a deer from his pursuers, who followed at his heels, shouting frantically, until he reached the brink of the river, where a boat was waiting to take him off. He dashed into it, and was at once rowed into the middle of the stream, out of reach of his tormentors, who, I quite believe, would have administered more severe lynch-law if they could have got hold of him, for their passions were wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement.
One feature in the scene I could not help remarkingthe negroes all appeared in high glee, and many of them actually danced with joy. I did not wonder at this, for the negroes always seemed to exult if a white man was in disgrace; which, after all, is no more than might be expected from a class of men tyrannized over as the coloured people are there, and is one of the results of the oppressive system that exacts everything that human labour can furnish, without remuneration, and without (in by far the greater number of instances) any approach to sympathy or grateful feeling.
This alone, without taking into consideration the outrages inflicted on the race by their cruel oppressors, supplies a sufficient cause for such a tendency, if every other were wanting.
So, dude, if there’s blood, it’s YOUR fault!
The thousand union workers he encouraged to draw blood when fighting to continue to bankrupt the states they are in with high salaries and benefits paid for by others won't hear this turnaround and he knows it.
Mission accomplished.
If the unions took the 30-50 million or so they spend every year on political ads etc (always supporting leftists/democrats)and used it to refund some dues the union people would be much better off.
But of course if they workers complained about all the graft by the union bosses, they would probably get bloodied themselves.
Hypocrite.
Two faced Democrat? That’s redundant. And typical.
Put the tooth paste back in the tube. This idiot doesn’t deserve to hold public office.
He regrets everyone knowing he’s a violent goon... I doubt he’d have regrets if it hadn’t been reported...
Capauno needs to do the right thing - RESIGN
somebody whispered in this jokers ear that if things did get bloody it would literally land in a friggen heap at HIS feet.
Dead union thugs & Tea party members in their late 40-60’s on the evening news & his name as the schmoe that egged on the violence. That is the reason that he is try to walk that speach back .
Oh well, if all you have to do is apologize........
Another of six card carrying socialists from Massachusetts.
Everybody knows the last couple of years theres been an intentional increase in the degree of heat in political discourse, he said.
Brought on by divide and conquer politicians like you and your selfish, immature supporters
...and the state GOP let this clown run unopposed last fall,too!
Capuano. Does that rhyme with Bat Guano?
You are so right. This fool only proves what I thought all along about these pols that were decrying “violent” rhetoric - they will exploit any event, regardless how tragic, if they see political gain.
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