Last night, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) held a townhall in Reston, Virginia, with Howard Dean. And because of Howard Dean's presence, the right-wingers were out in full force, including Operation Rescue's own domestic terrorist, Randall Terry. (There was a lot written about Terry after George Tiller's murder; you can read more about him and his ilk here, here, here, and here.)
When Howard Dean stepped to the microphone, Terry started going ballistic, and was kicked out. What was he doing?
Quotes below the fold.
Update: So I'm watching C-SPAN right now (9:15AM PST), and Randall Terry is being kicked out of the town hall as I type this. He and a few others started chanting, "We won't stay silent!" and "We won't pay for murder!" Moran specifically called out Randall Terry by name, citing how Terry had told the press the day before that he would be trying to disrupt the meeting. What the news accounts didn't say was that Moran actually gave Terry the option of asking the first question in the Q&A if Terry and his cohorts would allow Dean to speak. Terry kept yelling "Howard Dean is a baby killer!", and so was escorted out. Now why didn't the news accounts mention Moran's gracious offer?
Update 2: Here's video from someone at the townhall of Terry being escorted out. You can clearly hear Moran first explain to everyone there who Terry is, and then make the offer to Terry, which he refused.
And here's video from FireDogLake, which includes what Terry was saying to some reporters once he left the gymanasium itself. Of course, you have Wally Herger wannabes telling him he's a "great American" for doing what he's doing. Yikes.
And here is a pretty good write-up from the NYT.
Anyway, back to the original diary.
Terry's colleagues put on a skit with a man in an Obama mask pretending to whip a bloodied woman, who kept saying, "Massa, don't hit me no more. I got the money to kill the babies."
Terry himself dressed in a doctor's lab coat and pretended to stab a woman in a gray wig.
"There's no way to pay for this thing without killing granny," Terry explained.
I mean, this is so demented on multiple levels. From the staged violence to the fake blood, what's with the woman saying "Massa" to the guy in the Obama mask? Is this some delusional fantasy of Terry's about reparations or something, because Glenn Beck said so?
It wasn't reported at this specific townhall, but in recent weeks, Terry has been going around to these townhalls and making a spectacle by stabbing babies. I'm not kidding.
Kevinole and pickandshovel both attended the townhall last night and wrote diaries about them, but they quickly fell down the page after the Ted Kennedy news broke. Give 'em some recs; they braved the wingnuts there to bring us some good reports. Here's Kevinole's photo when Terry disrupted Dean's speech.
There's also this "moran" who wasn't kicked out.
One heckler who didn't get booted was David Hunter of Arlington, who stood on the gym floor in a suit and tie and shouted back at nearly every Moran statement.
"If I knew I could ask one question and get two minutes with the congressman, I wouldn't have shouted one bit," Hunter said. "I'm doing my best within my power to be heard."
No, you're doing your best within your power to be an asshole to everyone else at the townhall. There's a difference. BTW, how come reporters who interview these loons never ask them how they felt about people who tried to protest Bush's townhalls (sometimes just by wearing a t-shirt), and were ARRESTED for doing so? I'd like to see if these right-wing protesters will acknowledge their double-standard, or if they'll continue to be hypocrites about it.
Final update: Some people in the comments have noted how hypocritical and disgusting Randall Terry's own personal life has been, with him even rejecting his own child. What a pathetic little man.