I call local talk radio in Albany, NY, somewhat regularly, but rarely bother with national shows because they do not treat Democratic callers with respect.
Tonight I gave it another try, after hearing Chris Stigall, subbing for Michael Savage, go off for 20-minutes-plus on how "arrogant" Barney Frank was yesterday in dealing with a town hall protestor.
I thought I had something to add to that discussion -- that the serial Nazi-slurring woman was an obvious member of the Lyndon LaRouche cult, and was indeed on another planet and as dumb as a table, metaphorically.
After I explained what I wanted to talk about to the screener, I asked if I was wasting my time if Stigall did not want to deal with opposing views.
He assured me they take such calls all the time, and put me on hold.
An hour later, the screener informed me that "it doesn't seem he's going in your direction today, sorry," followed by a dial tone.
What I would have said, and why, below.
David Weigel of The Washington Independent (who I had the pleasure of meeting on an outside walk from the hotel to the convention center in Pittsburgh) has been all over the story about Frank's other-worldly questioner.
Most media, especially talk radio, have focused virally on Frank's rather extreme put-down today, and much less so on what she said to deserve it, and who she is.
Here's some of what Weigel wrote today:
Yes, the woman was a LaRouche cultist.
snip
When Frank criticizes the woman’s sign (Obama with a Hitler mustache, the text underneath is "I've changed"), she holds it up for him, and another activist holds up the same sign.
Recognize the image? Right: It’s from Lyndon LaRouche’s anti-health care reform web site.
Weigel provides a verbatim version of the LaRouchie's question, which no broadcast or cable media bothered with:
I think the administration is missing something in these town hall meetings, which is that it’s not just one group. The economy is collapsing. We have 30 percent real unemployment. Forty-eight states cannot balance their budgets. And they are cutting programs to the bone. This is the context under which the Obama administration has said we need health care reform.
(Applause)
I’m not done. The reason why is because they say we need to limit Medicare expenditures in order to do that, in order to reduce the deficit. That’s the origin of this policy This is the T4 policy of the Hitler, of a Hitler policy in 1939, where he said certain lives are not worth living.
(Crowd noise, including boos and a cry of "Shame on you!")
Certain people we should not spend the money to keep them alive, which is exactly what Ezekiel Emanuel has said. So my question to you, one, is, this policy is already on its way out, it’s already been defeated by LaRouche. So my question to you is why do you still support this Nazi policy?
Weigel's reporting about far-right cultists infiltrating town hall meetings has been picked up by a blog at the Washington Post,(without attribution, naturally,) but with some extra reporting, like these interesting quotes from an admitted LaRouchie.
"LaRouche PAC members are giving leadership to these town hall meetings all around the country so we are being at any one that we possibly can," LaRouche PAC spokeswoman Nancy Spannaus told The Post of the group's presence in Massachusetts.
"Our Obama mustache poster symbolizes the fact that the president is attempting to implement a Hitler health care policy," she said. "At any town hall, you'll know LaRouche people are there if you just look for the mustache."
LaRouche and his weird cult has been, up to now, rightfully ignored by the media. Because they are wackos.
But today, they were being ignored because to mention them would have interfered with the narrative, on right-wing talk radio anyway, of "mean Congressman deriding town hall questioner."
What I would have said, had the coward Stigall allowed mention of the LaRouchies on national radio, was this (which I had plenty of time to write down):
Barney Frank's response to the questioner who made several anti-Obama Nazi slurs was right on point, because LaRouchite cultists do indeed live on another planet, metaphorically.
I probably would never have gotten to the larger, more important point, that the teabagger mobs are largely composed of the ultra-right -- LaRouchies, Birchers, the Ron Paul remnant, gun nuts, tax/government haters (weirdly including some people on Medicare and Social Security), militia types (sometimes armed, because the media love that), etc.
Who do not in any way, on this planet at least, represent anything more than a micro-minority of the American people.
Now, as always.
Thankfully.