Post by dgriffin on Aug 10, 2009 15:21:36 GMT -5
Fox News
Pelosi Calls Health Care Critics 'Un-American'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the health care debate up a notch Monday, penning a column along with her top deputy that questioned the patriotism of those disrupting town hall meetings to air their complaints.
Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed such behavior is "simply un-American."
"I, like most Americans, would find that kind of characterization of citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to be offensive," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told FOX News. "There's nothing more American than letting your elected representatives know how you feel about important issues facing the nation."
Back in September 2008, Pelosi used similar language to complain about Republicans who weren't showing up to talks on a Wall Street bailout package.
"I thought it was very unpatriotic of them not to show up, not to show up, in some ways, boycott the meetings earlier in the week," she said.
She also reportedly called the GOP budget in 2006 "unpatriotic" because it drove up the national debt.
This past May, she accused the CIA of lying to Congress, as she was facing questions about how much she knew early on about the Bush administration's interrogation policies.
Then last week, with the health care debate growing more heated, she invoked Nazi Germany, accusing protesters of "carrying swastikas and symbols like that" to meetings. A spokesman for Pelosi later said the speaker was referencing a photo taken at a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which showed a protester holding a sign of a swastika crossed out over President Obama's name and a question mark.
Yet the language Pelosi is using for health care critics is nothing like the language she used to describe anti-war protesters criticized by war supporters as unpatriotic.
Pelosi, who led efforts to withdraw from Iraq before troops had finished the job, tolerated anti-war hecklers on several occasions.
MORE AT:
www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/06/fear-loathing-democrats-liken-health-reform-protesters-nazis/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g12:r4:c0.310734:b27057912:z0
SEE ALSO: Fear or Loathing: Democrats Raise Specter of Swastikas to Cancel Town Halls
www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/06/fear-loathing-democrats-liken-health-reform-protesters-nazis/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g12:r4:c0.310734:b27057912:z0
Pelosi Calls Health Care Critics 'Un-American'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the health care debate up a notch Monday, penning a column along with her top deputy that questioned the patriotism of those disrupting town hall meetings to air their complaints.
Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed such behavior is "simply un-American."
"I, like most Americans, would find that kind of characterization of citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to be offensive," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told FOX News. "There's nothing more American than letting your elected representatives know how you feel about important issues facing the nation."
Back in September 2008, Pelosi used similar language to complain about Republicans who weren't showing up to talks on a Wall Street bailout package.
"I thought it was very unpatriotic of them not to show up, not to show up, in some ways, boycott the meetings earlier in the week," she said.
She also reportedly called the GOP budget in 2006 "unpatriotic" because it drove up the national debt.
This past May, she accused the CIA of lying to Congress, as she was facing questions about how much she knew early on about the Bush administration's interrogation policies.
Then last week, with the health care debate growing more heated, she invoked Nazi Germany, accusing protesters of "carrying swastikas and symbols like that" to meetings. A spokesman for Pelosi later said the speaker was referencing a photo taken at a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which showed a protester holding a sign of a swastika crossed out over President Obama's name and a question mark.
Yet the language Pelosi is using for health care critics is nothing like the language she used to describe anti-war protesters criticized by war supporters as unpatriotic.
Pelosi, who led efforts to withdraw from Iraq before troops had finished the job, tolerated anti-war hecklers on several occasions.
MORE AT:
www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/06/fear-loathing-democrats-liken-health-reform-protesters-nazis/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g12:r4:c0.310734:b27057912:z0
SEE ALSO: Fear or Loathing: Democrats Raise Specter of Swastikas to Cancel Town Halls
www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/06/fear-loathing-democrats-liken-health-reform-protesters-nazis/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g12:r4:c0.310734:b27057912:z0