Cartoonist Steve Hill was around Capitol Hill today and observed the Tea Party protest in action, including shouts of hateful and obscene bigotry aimed at intimidating certain members of Congress.
Tea Party protesters were overheard shouting "F****T" at openly-gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA). (Cartoon by Taylor Jones)
Here is his email:
I’m in DC on vacation. With the historic vote tomorrow, I thought I’d run by my congressman’s (he’s against the bill) office and get tickets to watch. So I had to make my way through the Tea Bag crowd. I saw the usual Obama as Hitler, Obama as the Joker, Obama is Hitler/ Mussolini/ Socialist/ Facsist/ Communist and Obama in a coffin signs.
When I got to the Longworth Building, the Tea Bag crowd had moved from the Capitol grounds to the House office buildings. Representatives making their way out of the buildings had to make their way through the increasingly ugly crowd.
I was standing there when Barney Frank emerged and the guy next to me hollers “FAGGOT!” He was joined by several others with that chant. Frank walked right through the middle of the hillbilly gauntlet.
African-American Representatives were greeted by racial epithets. One woman yelled “You’re not as safe as you think you are!”
Inside the buildings, police asked the Tea Bag bunch to stop shouting. They were basically shouted down.
I got an “amen” from a departing congressman when I said, “Can I get a ‘yes’ vote?” Those standing within earshot started yelling at me – calling me a “communist,” “communist sympathizer” and the usual collection of cursing. The congressman got worse.
At that point, I decided to leave.
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