As anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak attempted to speak on the House floor, a lone voice called out what sounded like ‘Baby Killer.‘ The entire House errupted in muffled whispers over the affrontery. Gavels were banged and people whispered back and forth over what they thought they heard. Rep. Stupak had held out his vote for Health Care Reform until President Obama promised to write an executive order stating no public funds were to be used for abortion. The ‘baby killer’ remark must have smarted. Again, rudeness.
Now the shouter has stepped forward and confessed, along with a little equivocation. It seems that he meant the Health Care Reform legislation was a baby killer, not Stupak. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tx) had the following to say:
Last night was the climax of weeks and months of debate on a health care bill that my constituents fear and do not support. In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘it’s a baby killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership. While I remain heartbroken over the passage of this bill and the tragic consequences it will have for the unborn, I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself.
“I have apologized to Mr. Stupak and also apologize to my colleagues for the manner in which I expressed my disappointment about the bill. The House Chamber is a place of decorum and respect. The timing and tone of my comment last night was inappropriate.”
Yea right, Mr. Neugebauer. Let’s have a listen. It’s brief:
We must live in an ‘anything goes’ culture where the rules of civilized society have been abandoned. On the national level, Members of Congress call the the President a liar, call each other names like ‘ Baby Killer.’ Outside, protestors spit, make racial slurs, and threaten with gun signs. At the local level a supervisor thinks its ok to call his constituents names and refer to them as ‘crap.’ There must be some rules of decorum. It’s one thing to speak informally with friends. It’s quite another to make public statements and direct racial slurs at people. The threatening and bullying must stop. And our leaders and entertainers who reach into millions and millions of homes per day must stop aiding, abetting and inciting this kind of behavior.
Because, Elena, to me it is all about a very wide bandwith of bad Congressional behavior across the political spectrum. I think more and more people in this country are looking at the Congress and saying: “What the Hell is it with these people? They act like they’re going nuts. They cannot sit down with each other and address critical issues without all kinds of back room deals, threats, outright falsehoods, bitterness, and demanding that the only option of opponents is to go down on their knees and kiss the ring of the majority?” That incident with Neugebauer, in my opinion, is small potatoes. It can be dealt with by one thread and a couple of posts saying “yea” or “nay” and then put on the shelf. I mean, what are we seeking here? To have old Neugebauer drawn and quartered for one bad slip of the tongue in violation of House decorum? Should we parade him naked through the streets followed by a big guy swinging a bullwhip and then ban him forever from the halls of Congress.?
Be candid with me , Elena. With all due respect, why are YOU so intent on pursuing this? Is it really because of one faux pas for which the guy has apologized or is it because you do not like his politics? I don’t approve of the violation of the rules of the House anymore than you do, but I hardly think it is worthy of extended discusssion unless one can address a wider issue — a wider issue which certainly concerns me and a lot of other people I know. And a big part of that issue is the growing tendency to shove some very serious congressional misbehavior under the rug and out of sight as long as possible for ulterior political motives. If you want to continue to dump all over Neugebauer, can I hear some complaints about Pelosi allowing Charlie Rangel to keep his key tax committee chairmanship for so long after he was being put on the spot over numerous violations of the tax laws? Can I hear some doubt about Alcee Hastings being given a coveted spot on the House intelligence committee when he was previously impeached from a judgeship for taking a $150,000 bribe? And you wonder why I might find Democrat umbrage at Neugebauer’s shout out just a bit disingenuous?
I am not going to ask when democrats have made fools of themselves on the floor of Congress. I am sure there are plenty of examples. I have a fairly short memory about such things. I believe it is their turn to profit from comparison since they haven’t been acting out real badly. I also realize I just jinxed them. I have leaned into their camp since Daddy Bush left office. Leaned, not stood. I am an independent. I have been both a Republican and a Democrat. I don’t have a high opinion of political parties.
There is an inherent problem with a 2 party system where it costs a fortune to get elected even to a state delegate postion. Until this changes, I am afraid we will continue to have political whores as legislators–either that or extremely rich people who finance their own campaigns and who are so far removed from the average person that we don’t want them either.
Right now, the engines driving my train are my dislike of religion, anyone’s, including my own, being policy and dislike of bullies. There are other dislikes but those 2 are the fuel.
I find Neugebauer and Wilson to just be rude. Life will go on. Too bad though about setting a standard. Low hanging fruit is now the norm rather than the exception.
Wolverine, is this where we are talking about O’Keefe? First, I have no like of ACORN. In fact, until the past 2 years I had never heard of them. It doesn’t sound like an organization I would have respect for. Having said that….I don’t like free lance stings particularly. I don’t like that there wasn’t a Congressional investigation long before. O’Keefe was politically motivated and he also did some recording in Maryland that was against the law. I don’t know if he was ever prosecuted or not. I dislike both of them also. Lying is wrong. Lying to uncover wrong falls into the category of 2 wrongs don’t make a right. If law enforcement does it, I am ok with it. That is their job. Private citizens shouldn’t be claiming the moral high road when they are politically motivated.
Mrs. Neugebauer really looked very frightened. I felt sorry for her. Something either scared her or those were horrible lights.
Moon, while I rant about the behavior of the politicians and believe I have good reason to do so, I feel like you probably do. I just don’t know where to go with it at this point. It has become a political Gordian Knot. How we ever get to a system of honest, serious citizen-representatives I simply do not know. Term limits? Maybe, but term limits have often been criticized for limiting our free choice The end of the seniority system in Congress? Perhaps. A better way to monitor the financial dealings and portfolios of our public servants? Possibly, but where does the monitoring end and the invasion of personal privacy begin? Maybe the real extreme of ending the party system and obliging all to run as independents? Would that be possible? After all, we were warned at the very beginning of our republic against allowing our system to develop into a conflict of political parties. The only thing of which I am pretty certain is that, given the increasing economic complexities of our world, we are not going to see very soon an abatement of what we just witnessed over the past six months in Congress. And I am afraid that, if the center of the political universe operates in chaos and dishonesty, that chaos and dishonesty is going to spread to the component parts. We may be in for a long, rough ride.
@Moon-howler
“I am afraid we will continue to have political whores as legislators–either that or extremely rich people who finance their own campaigns and who are so far removed from the average person that we don’t want them either.”
Actually, now you have both. We have rich political whores that think they are above the rest of us. I won’t bore you with the litany of the usual suspects, you know who they are.
About O’Keefe “illegal taping”. So, 60 Minutes can’t do any more exposes? It was the same thing. He did an expose on ACORN.
60 minutes identifies itself does it not? I don’t believe in lying for a story. O’Keefe is a pimp of the religious right actually, IMHO.
I don’t deny we have both now. And things will not change until serious campaign reform happens. The Supreme Court ruling did us no favors. Now elections will be even more controlled by corporations and unions.
Wolverine, it is definitely a conundrum.
Rick Bentley used to have a compelling reason why 3rd parties would not work. I think he has changed his mind. I honestly don’t see an answer without breaking out of the 2 party system and I am not even sure that would work. Right now, any third party attempt will only do what it always does and that is to hand the election to whoever the third party is the most unlike.
Remember when all the Nadar people went around for 8 years whining about George Bush? That sort of told me they were too stupid to even be allowed to vote if they couldn’t figure that one out.
That sums it up well. Both sides (Republicans and Democrats) are equally bad. Anyone who claims that isn’t so, is just not looking at the big picture and is too partisan to see it.
Most people are angry at Congress in general – and it has nothing specifically to do with what one particular side did. Basically, they feel Congress no longer represents them, and i just a bunch of nutty people bickering, making backroom deals, etc.
But Moon the Nader effect – which inarguably swung that election – did move the Democratic party leftward. (We’re witnessing the glorious results now).
I wish someone could do that on the right. I wish the GOP’s positions would deviate from the Democrats’ ON THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER to give Americans a choice.
footnote 1 – things that really matter – containing health care costs by stopping all this end-of-life spending, reducing drug prices, sacrificing our troops to keep oil prices down for the whole world, increasuing wages for the poor rather than an endless series of ill-conceived government kickbacks, implementing the will of the people and the existing laws on immigration, real reform of the welfare system,
oops, sorry, here’s the rest
footnote 1 – things that really matter – containing health care costs by stopping all this end-of-life spending, reducing drug prices, sacrificing our troops to keep oil prices down for the whole world, increasuing wages for the poor rather than an endless series of ill-conceived government kickbacks, implementing the will of the people and the existing laws on immigration, real reform of the welfare system, and collectively engaging in enough fiscal sanity/conservatism as to remain a superpower rather than a country full of other nations’ assets/property that we now rent out.
footnote 2 – things that don’t matter so much or that government can’t do much about that the two parties use to distract us instead of having to do anything real – abortion, gay marriage, global warming, whether the government should get involved in guaranteeing health care for even more people before or after we pay for emergency care.
Oh, another thing that really matters is whether when our ruling class has overexpanded the investments they use to dominate the rest of us, whether we should bail them out or whether we should keep some rules, some notion of capitalism, some notion of winners and losers in place. No choice on that one. The only choice I remember in the Presidential election is whether or not it was so critical to implement bailout that they should forego Presidential debates and run back to DC to facilitate as big a bailout as humanly possible.
@Moon-howler
Actually, 60 Minutes do some undercover exposes where they are not identified, as do other news sources.
And O’keefe is not part of the religious right that I know of. He does not appear to be motivated by such. He seems to be motivated by “sticking it” to whom he feels needs it.
ACORN needed it.
The phone thing is unclear. Its been determined that there was no interference with the phones. Their tesitimony is that they were seeking proof that the politician involved was lying when stating that the phones were out of order and that they were ignoring calls for days. O’keefe is stating that he was there to document it, I think.
All 535 of them need to be yelled at, and more accurately punched in the face. (Civility is not my strong point).
or I’ll just say slapped with a wet fish.
Big talk from someone who once spoke to John McCain. (He was behind me in the boading line at Phoenix Airport). If I had that chance again I’d have a lot more to say! Much less if I had a wet fish in my hands.
He could tell that I didn’t like him, though. I did acheive that.
That sounds about right to me. Not too many of them really are serving their constituents, if you ask me.
Now that I think about it, of course a simple punch to the face won’t work.
How about we strip them of benefits and pensions? THAT would have an effect.
Seems fair when you consider that they’ve given us such acheivements as :
A “war on terror” that leaves our borders wide open and “undocumented workers” handling food by the millions
A “health care reform” that won’t address high costs, but rather help to institutionalize them
A staggering big-business bailout followed by rounds of bonuses for top executives
If I could somehow become a god-like figure in charge of all 3 branches of government, with unlimited power to straighten things out, i’d give them all jail terms. Starting with Bush and Obama. Or maybe I’d just give Bush an unlimited tour of duty in Iraq, in a unit with Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney, and Powell.
Obama ideally i would impeach and jail over the corrupt deal with Big Pharma and all the lies he has told while trying to sell health care reform to us (before he gave up and decoded to just shove it down America’s throat).
Sounds good. Then again, some of them work until they are 90 or so – which kind of defeats the whole idea of having a pension. So, it might not make a difference to them.
No one seems to mind that the state employees had their pension stolen from by the state. $620 million dollars and they just helped themselves. I guess it just looked like a big bank.
Steal and spend and sue…the new motto of Virginia.