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CNN's Capitol Hill correspondent Dana Bash is reporting that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a black Congressman who is a Civil Rights era icon, was called a "n*****" by Tea Party protesters gathered on Capitol Hill today to rally against the Democrat's healthcare bill.Bash also reported Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was called a slur related to his homosexuality by Tea Party protesters.No video so far of either incident.Bash did note that the most constant and resonant words of the Tea Party protesters were "Kill the bill!" And that that chant was inescapable on the Hill today.

“Rising tensions on Capitol Hill” is a cliche in cable news, but it may never have been apt than today. With the House of Representatives currently negotiating a controversial vote on a Senate bill that aims to reform health care, protesters have gathered to voice their opposition to the bill. CNN’s Capitol Hill reporter Dana Bash reports today of personally witnessing epithets being used towards John Lewis (D-GA) and Barney Frank (D-MA) by protesters that had been identified earlier as “Tea Party people.” VIDEO AT LINK

A Democrat Congressman who says he was a few yards behind Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) as he was walking between Congressional buildings today when Lewis was allegedly called a n***** by Tea Party protesters says that it was actually a chorus of voices calling Lewis a n*****.Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo) is quoted by McClatchy Newspapers as saying he "distinctly heard" Lewis called a n*****:"It was a chorus," Cleaver said. "In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff - they're being whipped up. I decided I wouldn't be angry with any of them."Politico has...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), called a "Homo Communist" on Saturday by protesters opposed to President Barack Obama's health plan, says his GOP colleagues need to do more to "differentiate themselves" from the hateful speech spewed in the healthcare debate's final hours. Frank, an openly gay lawmaker, had to call the Captiol Police “to move away” five or six protesters who were banging on his office door and shouting through the mail slot. While making the trek across the street from his office to the Capitol, Frank was called a “Homo Communist” and told to “go homo to Massachusetts” by several...

Though by their own count “thousands” of anti-ObamaCare protesters gathered outside the Capitol building on Saturday, ABC decided to smear the entire cause by stressing the despicable actions of a handful or even fewer as anchor David Muir announced in setting up the first story on Saturday’s World News: “Protesters against the plan gathered on the streets of the capital where late today we learned words shouted turned very ugly, reports of racial and homophobic slurs, one protester actually spitting on a Congressman.” Following the lead story on President Barack Obama’s pep talk to House Democrats, and before Jonathan Karl’s...

This morning's Washington Post contains a report summarizing the last minute political wrangling surrounding tonight's vote on President Obama's government takeover of healthcare. Protesters gathered in Washington, hoping against hope to have their voice heard by those servants elected to the Hill, were characterized thus: Throughout the day, thousands of angry protesters milled outside the Capitol; some hurled insults at black and gay lawmakers and shouted at Democrats to "kill the bill!" Meanwhile, Obama made a final pitch for reform, exhorting wavering lawmakers to rise to the aid of millions of uninsured Americans by taking "the single most important step...

It's sad but not surprising that some of those protesting Saturday against health-care overhaul legislation literally spit on at least one congressman and shouted racial and homophobic epithets as well. Some of us have long suspected that at least part of the opposition to the overhaul is part of the free-form hostility some Americans feel towards the political ascendancy of people who don't look like them or who have a different sexual orientation.

Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling "you're a disgrace to your office" and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill. In a moment of apparently unscripted political theater, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched arm in arm — with civil rights pioneer John Lewis — across the Capitol complex while protesters yelled at them and police held a barricade. The Pelosi disruption came inside the Cannon office building, where Democrats where whipping...