Here's the original FR thread from back in 2004.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1066411/posts?q=1&;page=51
Whether or not enforcing one standard of behavior is correct or not and whether some FReepers believe in that standard and other FReepers do not is not the point.
The point is that Al Franken, a nationally known Democrat politician, was celebrated by the ruling elites for bodily attacking a heckler that had not physically threatened or attacked anyone. While those same ruling-elites condemn Trump for advocating physical responses to the threats and physical attacks of hecklers - while never bodily attacking anyone himself.
Here's an example where CNN's article in 2004 even concealed Franken's own admission of charging and knocking down the heckler and only said:
"Franken... helped carry out one of the disrupters. In the process, Franken's glasses were knocked off his face and broke in two."Also notice that CNN's headline was the disruption of the heckler(s) and not the actual physical attack by Franken.