GOP Rep Reiterates: Man Who Called Himself “Right Wing Terrorist” Is Definitely A “Great American”
Video has now surfaced of an event I noted here the other day, in which GOP Rep. Wally Herger of California praised a man who described himself as a “right wing terrorist” at a town hall, subsequently referring to him as a “great American.”
Herger’s spokesman, Matt Lavoie, tells me that not only is the Congressman standing by the comment; he’s reiterating it. Very, very forcefully. Herger’s spokesman emails this statement standing by the constitutent, Bert Stead:
“Congressman Herger stands by his statement in support of his constituent. Mr. Bert Stead is a taxpayer and Veteran, who, like so many others, is rightfully fed up with being called `un-American,’ or `extremist’ or a “political terrorist’ by liberals in Washington, for simply exercising his First Amendment rights. Mr. Stead served his country and therefore he is a great American. The Congressman doesn’t at all regret commending him for standing up, exercising his free speech rights, and expressing his strong concerns with the direction liberals in Washington are taking our country.”
Intriguingly, there’s nothing here suggesting the congressman has any issue with the constituent’s description of himself as a “right wing terrorist.” Watch the video in full:
Mr. Stead, clearly, is making an ironic reference to the descriptions of town hall rowdies as political terrorists. But as Steve Benen notes, the larger context here is important: The threat of violence is real, and elected officials play a role in setting the tone of the debate. One might add that “right wing terrorists” have actually killed Americans on occasion.
Rep. Herger’s office had a chance to repudiate the voter’s blithe reference to “right wing terrorism,” and not only declined, but turned up the volume of his praise, lauding him for exercising his “First Amendment Rights.” Imagine if a Democrat…oh, never mind.
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IDK man. Kind of a stretch. I don’t think he thinks specifically the part about being a terrorist is great as much as the last portion of what they guy was talking about, which was not wanting a hand from the Govn’t.
I think the more significant point is the guy is a birther which is about as far out there as you can get.
Perhaps the “right wing terrorist” would like to give up all of the government benefits he receives as a true protest against health care reform?
mike, agreed, but the point is he had a second chance to repudiate that specific claim, and passed — not only that but lauded the guy for saying it. see what I mean?
“Mr. Stead served his country and therefore he is a great American.”
Lee Harvey Oswald served his country in the armed forces. Does that make him a great American?
“Perhaps the “right wing terrorist” would like to give up all of the government benefits he receives as a true protest against health care reform?”
Word up. Let’s give all those people the choice between a lifeboat of their own, include the paddles and that’s it – send them to sea – or a blanket and a handcart and send them off into the wilderness.
Isn’t that what they want?
A bit off topic, but this is such an infuriating video. This is just another example of why Fox News is not an impartial player in any debate.
Must watch!!!
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2700
Tena,
No, what they want is for everyone else to build their own lifeboats and handcarts…
I hear ya. I also think corporate interests baited Democrats, specifically Pelosi and some others, into generalizing a bit too much regarding the nuttiness of some of the constituents. They completely boggled it at the get go and it seemed the sympathy changed to support the outbursts.
I cringed when I heard some of the generalizations going on by Dems at the beginning. At this point, as far as I see it, you start arguing about what you really meant and its a lost cause because it’s become a muddled issue.
They had Democrats arguing against people shouting focus group tested propaganda talking points provided by corporations. That’s not going to convince anyone, especially in a country who has a strong heritage based off of overthrowing a Govn’t they didn’t like. Only now have the Dems caught on and have been able to fairly successfully counter this with OFA’s activists.
Anyways, yeah, in theory, he should denounce people proclaiming to be terrorists. Maybe if the line of questioning isolated out that portion rather than generalizing he would have. (I’m assuming the question generalized) But he’s not going to go against his constituents because, heck, how many politicians out there would?
Mike from A, I was thinking something along the lines of, “Obviously Mr. Stead wasn’t serious in describing himself that way, and that’s not a laughing matter at a time when real and potentially violent confrontations are taking place across the country. But I commend Mr. Stead’s service…”
that kind of thing…
Tena & Co….
Why no “troll” or “spam” comments for kevsters?….he seems to roll in and out with this stuff often.
Also, Greg….just a hunch here, but we conservatives tend to forget how you have no sense of humor as this is a reference to the Baron Hill – D comments about town hallers are “political terrorists”…..again, just a hunch. Where’s all of your “free thinking” and “we love all people” mumbo jumbo….oh yeah, only if they agree with Prog movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ6Ga8urR7s&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ewikio%2Eco%2Euk%2Fvideo%2F1524054&feature=player_embedded
@mike
Corporate interest baited Pelosi into saying Americans are unamerican? Prove it….either way it shows that she can be baited by anything or she has absolutely no sense….anyway you play it, she’s a politician that you all rejoice. Another perfect example of why term limits are necessary.
“No, what they want is for everyone else to build their own lifeboats and handcarts…”
You’re right.
“.anyway you play it, she’s a politician that you all rejoice. ”
Yeah and any you play it, she’s a politicain that you all hate and revile and belittle.
Who would have thought that having a Democratic woman as Speaker of the House would flip out all the wingers?
Jack, maybe you missed this line from the post?
“Mr. Stead, clearly, is making an ironic reference to the descriptions of town hall rowdies as political terrorists.”
That seems like a direct reference to what you’re talking about.
textbook lib/progressive….when confronted with facts, divert and call the agitator either racist, homophobe, or s*xist.
Greg,
So why title your story this way? Is it about presenting facts or creating attention?
Its a rhetorical question, no need to respond.
Didn’t Timothy McVeigh serve his country? Is he a great American too? Didn’t one of the DC snipers serve in the military? Is he a great American too? We had an Vet fo the Iraq war down here shoot a police officer the other day. Is he a great American too?
This is your GOP. Pandering to unhinged ex military members one day, trying to scare them about death books which have been in play since 1997 the day after.
Jack,
Read this article that linked Freedomworks, Rich Santelli, the Kock family, the John Birch Society and others as the starting block for the “spontaneous” tea parties that sprung up.
The Dems got out-hustled at the beginning of this corporate America vs. average American showdown and conservative corporate America got the lead by successfully harnessing general frustration at what had to be done to stop the meltdown of our country.
Fortunately, the Dems have gotten their mojo back and excited the base up enough and show them that if they don’t fight for what they believe is right, ie. Universal health care, it won’t happen.
Now they just need to stay focused and keep people involved.
@ Jack Bauer
textbook wingnut/conservative…when asked a direct question deflect and ignore in an effort to avoid having to give an answer.
@trinity
What’s the question I deflected…always happy to answer.
“textbook lib/progressive….when confronted with facts, divert and call the agitator either racist, homophobe, or s*xist.”
Textbook winger. Furthermore, textbook winger troll.
@Jack Bauer,
I watched your YouTube link and it doesn’t support your comment. I’d like to know the context of those quotes before you can say that they’re definitely referring to people at town halls as “political terrorists.” Maybe the entire clip would back up this claim, but the sound bites shown definitely don’t. As for the one response by Cong. Hill, “UHH…”– how many of us start responses the same way?
As for kevster’s YouTube link, it shows a 3 minute clip taken directly from a Glenn Beck show. It’s hard to take something that long out of context. I’d agree it’s off-topic.
I’m a strong liberal who’d like both sides to tone down the rhetoric. All you gain by shouting loudly and angrily is to drive people away who might be tending toward your arguments.
Jack Bauer
Two points:
First Nancy Pelosi didn’t call protestors unamerican. She called their tactics unamerican. See look:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/unamerican-attacks-cant-derail-health-care-debate-.html
I do believe the 1st amendment gives us all the right to free speech so someone infringing on that right by trying to drown me or anyone else out is in fact UnAmerican. Or do you believe drowning out opposing views is perfectly fine?
Second: Here is a clip I want you to take a look at and soak in why people on the left are nervous about people referring to themselves as right wing terrorists. I mean as if the Pittsburg cop killer and the Holocaust shooter wasn’t reason enough.
@SG
Both sides will always have their fringe players…at least none of your examples hung out with Reagan, Bush or Bush….like O has with Ayers.
Can’t put two links in one post. Here is the youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fBRglimkgo
lol Jack Bauer are you serious with the Bill Ayers ****? You just about lost all your credibility with that crack. Does Iran Contra ring a bell?
sgwhiteinfla, you should know you won’t get an honest debate about who said what. They’ll just ignore what you said and disappear.
Only way to win this fight is to get involved. The momentum is building. September should be fun.
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
@sg
Enjoy this little clip which shows her hyprocisy for liking distruptors(drowining out views) and now against it since it isn’t going her way….
Term Limits.
Drowning out opposing views is more than simply UnAmerican – it’s also a violation of constitutional right to free speech of the person being shouted down.
None of our rights are absolute. They all end exactly where someone else’s rights begin.
So far, I don’t notice the Rightwing being terribly concerned about trampling all over everybody else in their Limbaugh-induced rage to be by god heard.
You’re right…Ayers and Obama didn’t hang out or even know each other right?
Oh for goodness’ sake, Greg. The reason he didn’t take pains to “repudiate” the claim is because ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN knows it was made in sarcasm. In *fact*, the entire statement reveals that the Congressman is well aware that the statement was made in sarcasm. You are being deliberately obtuse.
Jack
You have come to the wrong place. Im old hand at handling trolls. You can’t point at the shiny object and expect me to allow you to change the subject. YOU SAID she called protestors unamerican. So are you going to admit that you were wrong or risk losing whats left of your credibility?
Actually, Tera, it’s not a violation of one’s Constitutional right to free speech when they are shouted down. It might qualify as disturbing the peace though.
If they’re going to be so asinine about it, I think we should take the free punch and demand they justify their defense of right-wing terrorism. Let’s not be fair to them, here, because it might one day leave them able to justify the real thing.
@sg
sorry, she said their actions are unamerican….it depends on what the definition of “is” is…right?
according to you, my actions as a “troll”, make me a “troll” right?
Woops, guess you’re not so good at dealing with trolls.
There is indeed a real danger of violence, and we have already seen it from the union thugs sent, presumably by Democrats, to intimidate people into keeping quiet. There are also plenty of left wing terrorists, and I think the President knows some of them personally.
“Actually, Tera, it’s not a violation of one’s Constitutional right to free speech when they are shouted down. It might qualify as disturbing the peace though”
How the hell do you figure that? You certainly do violate someone’s right to free speech when you won’t let them talk.
And it’s Tena.
LOL this is too funny and looks like you guys need this explained. He called himself a right wing terrorist mocking this admin who did call those like myself and him rightwing terrorists. Did you forget about that or is life so horrid that you must spend hours going on and on about how this congressman did not denounce him as a rightwing terrorists? I mean seriously DHS sends out an alert about rightwing terrorists and claim that someone who believes in the US Constitution is a rightwing terrorists and you people can’t grasp why this man called himself that? You named him and many other americans that and then get upset when we throw it back in your face? So far folks like myself have been called nazi’s, mobsters, rightwing terrorists, brownshirts and I’m sure a few more. ALL by our government and elected officials that YOU support.
“rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration
It’s called sarcasm. The Dept of Homeland Security in April refered to veterans as potential internal terrorists and most veterans took great offense to that. The questioner was making a sarcastic reference to that report and other blanket insults hurled by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid about people attending meetings. Get over yourself, Mr. Sargent.
greg I can understand your followers not knowing what is going on unless you spoonfeed them but I don’t understand you and your continued one sided and many times unfactual approach to demonize your opponents. Well I take that back I DO understand why you only feed your follows the things you do!
Greg – you have arrived, darlin.
You have quite the stable of trolls – and that’s because you get mad props all over the place for your investigative work and your take on things.
greg I can understand your followers not knowing what is going on unless you spoon feed them but I sure do wonder about you and your continued one sided and many times unfactual approach to demonize your opponents and keeping your followers so uniformed. Well I take that back I do get why why you only feed your follows the things you do and keep them uniformed of all that encompasses what you bring to them.
lol if arrived means that trolls have to come to this site and explain to even greg why the man called himself a rightwing terrorist then yippie.
oh fyi greg we have also given ourselves pet mobster names since our elected officials claim we are mobsters hopefully you can do a blog on that!
just call me “Barry the Be-atch”
gee how quick the run when they find out
“The rest of the Story”
and it points at their leaders! lol
right on Yippie….ghost town.
I consider myself a right of center wing terrorist because the threat of my logical arguments strikes terror into the hearts of the radical left. Is that clear enough for you (intentionally?) misunderstanding leftists?
yep Jack it’s a drill that is played over and over again when facts smack them in their little pointy heads.
http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWNkM2UwYTFjYTIwMjg0YmRmY2I4ZmI4MmMwY2RjNDY=
“The only intriguing thing here is Greg Sargent’s obdurate unwillingness to acknowledge obvious sarcasm. Not to mention how unfair that headline is — sans context, it reads like the GOP is praising an actual terrorist, not a guy who’s fed up being called one for merely having a political opinion. A friend of mine who dealt Sargent on the campaign keeps insisting he is decent and fair, so perhaps he’ll clarify or even concede the point. But I’m sorry, as it reads now this kind of explicitly partisan, cheap-shot reporting should be banished to where it belongs in the outer darkness of Daily Kos and HuffPo.”
yep it’s a cheap shot like many of the headlines out here! as far as if he is fair and decent I have no idea, what I see a a partisan hack who ensures his followers don’t get “The rest of the Story” also someone that will use a filter to block out hr 3200 text!
I got an idea for greg how about each day he posts one or two sections from the actual text (word for word straight from the bill) of hr 3200 for us to discuss!
That would be spam free since I did not post it!!
Actually, it’s the bullets smacking into our heads from the guns fired by actual right-wing terrorists, such as the ones that killed Dr. Tiller, that we’re thinking of.
We don’t have a sense of humor about you murdering lying psychos, because you are murdering lying psychos
Not to mention your little hero Timothy McVeigh.
Tena, sorry for the mistake with your name. The First Amendment prevents the *government* from infringing on your rights to free speech. So an average Joe causing a disruption by shouting you down is not violating the First Amendment, because he’s not the government. Now, again, it could very well be illegal for other reasons, it’s just not a First Amendment issue.
IMHO, the Left and Center should stay away from this event. The “terrorist” reference is probably precipitated by the Home Land Security memo from earlier this year and NOT an indication that the person that made the statement or the congressional Rep thinks being a Right Wing Terrorist [who actually contemplates or commits violent acts that hurt or kill people] is a good thing for this country.
Since Congressman Herger seems to think it’s okay to threaten political assassination and mass murder (terrorism) so long as the target is a Democrat, I think he would be perfectly fine calling Lee Harvey Oswald a great American. After all, he murdered a Democrat and Herger has firmly endorsed and reendorsed rightwing terrorism against Democrats – so what’s a murder here or there.
Greg : you can do better than this. one facetious comment from some random voter is hardly newsworthy. I guess it fits your narrative. pathetic.
Somebody needs to remind Mr. TeaPartyTerroristAhole that Obama was not self-appointed, he was ELECTED in a ******* ELECTION – that’s how it works in AMERICA, *********.
@anon who’s hero is McVeigh? surely not mine and I doubt anyone else’s that has commented here.
But if you want to play that game how’s your hero Bill Ayer’s and the weather underground? Hey we even have one of Ayers radical buddies in the obama admin as a Czar!! You know one of the 20 or so Czar’s that do not answer to congress or the senate but only the president!
I’m sure that’s covered in the US Constitution.
He’s fed up? HE’S FED UP? Anybody remember Ann Coulter? I have elderly right wing parents to take care of so I am forced to listen to this **** every day. HE’S FED UP? Put me on a list right now of people who are not allowed to buy guns. Geez!
Better yet, tell me where I can send a few bucks to whoever runs against him in the next election.
I’ve never commented here before. Why does the right wing hang out here? AND Why are right wingers so intemperate?
Mr. Sargent:
Spake Tena:
“Greg – you have arrived, darlin.”
Coming from your number one “stays home every Saturday night with her house-cat and blow-up Dick Cheney doll” fangal, this means you should brush the ol’ resume up.
The Post’s bottom line isn’t getting any better, and you know what happens in the newsroom when the tax hikes come around…LAYOFF TIME!
(Why do you think all of a sudden the bloom seems to be coming off Obama’s rose for the MSM? They’re a soulless and amoral bunch of back-biting opportunists, and can smell their own rapidly approaching unemployment from the Obama Economic Plan. No “bailout” for YOU folks.)
As others have explained, the joke’s on you, my lad.
According to DHS, every Christian conservative veteran should be watched as a potential “Right wing Terrorist”.
Hell, if the guy had declared himself a committed Marxist, Obama would have made him the federal Czar of something.
And the joke is doubly on the DHS, since it turns out that the biggest fomenter of Right-wing extremism turned out to be a paid stooge of the FBI, employed PRECISELY to stir up right wingers and incite them to violence.
I wonder when can we can expect DHS agents to make arrests of the responsible parties at the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters Building?
You doubledummies have been so paranoid about Nixon-era COINTELPRO that it never occurred to you that it could be run the other way.
And that’s undoubtedly fine by you, as long as you can swallow the label that it was “right-wingers” who were the target.
But when the worm turns…
Mr. Sargent:
“# White People Are Silly | August 27th, 2009 at 04:30 pm
Somebody needs to remind Mr. TeaPartyTerroristAhole that Obama was not self-appointed, he was ELECTED in a ******* ELECTION – that’s how it works in AMERICA,*********.”
Does the Post know that you’re running a racist blog?
you poor schmuck. *zing* right over your head. Nice of you to come out of your cave every 7 years to “wee-wee” on someone. Next time, try and do some web searches on what is going on before b.s.-ing. rgioht-wing terrorist, fascist, gun-toting, blah blah blah. whatever.
It can usually be assumed that leftists don’t read carefully and will work themselves into hysteria over something they have misunderstood (or just missed).
But here it seems Sargent and his friends haven’t even watched the youtube video embedded here.
Indeed their reaction only strengthens the guy’s point that if you disagree you are demonized and might as well be a terrorist.
Good lord, Sargent. Are you that damned daft? Do you not understand the concept of sarcasm?
hehe boy this headliner sure shows how we weed up they get! LOL between this fine outstanding thread and the paid liberal rat, arrest record and all, in Denver I don’t think I have laughed so much in my life! hehehe
how did this cult get in the drivers seat? We are freakin doomed they can’t drive!
Soon we will here how the cops “acted stupidly” by arresting them. I am not even going to ask what in the heck is a transgender Anarchist. I am sure it’s a protected species of some sort and with a name like Ariel Attack it must be alien life form.
Colorado DNC Headquarters Vandalized, ObamaCare Protesters Blamed…Woman Arrested Turns out to be Radical Lefty Funded by SEIU…Update: Second Suspect a Transgender Anarchist
help they need a bailout!
Colorado Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak estimated damage at $10,000 on Tuesday after discovering the broken windows. The Democrats are also appealing for donations to pay for repairs.
Soon we will here how the cops “acted stupidly” by arresting them. I am not even going to ask what in the heck is a transgender Anarchist. I am sure it’s a protected species of some sort and with a name like Ariel Attack it must be alien life form.
Colorado DNC Headquarters Vandalized, ObamaCare Protesters Blamed…Woman Arrested Turns out to be Radical Lefty Funded by SEIU…Update: Second Suspect a Transgender Anarchist
ohhh she’s a comrade!
yeah let’s talk about wing extremists! we have acorn, seiu, afl-cio, elf, peta oh theres more help me out here dnc worshipers what are the other radical groups that do your dirty work? I think the best yet is the paid fbi informant Hal Turner. It just shows how out of touch the agenda is that is now being forced and I mean forced down our throats really is. We are now at the gates of tyranny and the obamabots have their marching orders. Notice the careful planted propaganda from greg! he goofed on this one and totally exposed his lack of credibility and the big one AGENDA. thanks man!
we know who runs washington it’s a criminal organization with it’s headquarters in Chicago!
oh for shame how dare I just turn me into flag@whitehouse.gov like good little followers!
–
Below is a link to the paypal account which will deposit money into the FREE ARIEL ATTACK FUND!!! Please do what you can to help get an amazing friend and comrade out of jail and back into her community. Also below are links to some of the corporate media stories about her arrest.
nsgender-anarchist-ariel-attack-suspected-in-dem-vandalism
“@anon who’s hero is McVeigh?”
Apparently, through the words of his spokesman (”Mr. Stead served his country and therefore he is a great American”), Wally Herger. .For those who don’t know, McVeigh served his country (and yes, I believe “great American” and “hero” are basically synonymous).
“…what the heck is a transgender Anarchist.”
A transgendered person who is an anarchist.
Hah, Wally Herger, through his spokesman implies that Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh were great Americans!
All you losers, even if the DHS report said all the things in it that you all say it does (and it does not), it was a report commissioned by the Bush, not the evilmarxistsocialistcommunistNaziwould-beeuthanizerofgrandmas Obama administration, lol!
Whoa, at 09 seconds. “My family…came over here on the Mayflower…the first winter was rough, but they didn’t have their hands out…” (big applause in Braindeadland). In Reality, the native Americans saved their sorry asses from starvation, and taught them what and how to plant, hunt and fish the next spring. The Pilgrims thanked God.
How many of the shrillest, loudest, angriest citizens are the same ones who most enthusiastically argued for the Iraq war, with a price tag of 1-3 Trillion, smaller government, meaning deregulation and non-regulation, which led to the financial disaster, and the borrow and spend policies of the Bush admin. Now, these very same people don’t have to backbone to accept their own responsibility but want to point fingers everywhere else! These are the most self-righteous purveyors of anger and deception
And the win at all cost demagogues in the media are carefully feeding this into a national psychosis. BTW: That is how the Nazi movement in Germany was described by Albert Einstein, as a national psychosis.
Whoa, wait a minute now. The financial disaster you speak of started with the Clinton administration and the forced relaxation of banking regulations regarding qualifications for home loans. The first Bush administration tried to re-install those safeguards but was rebuffed by the Democrats in Congress.
Even the New York Times reported it on September 30, 1999 in an article by Steven A. Holmes. The gist of the article was thet if these loans failed, there would have to be a bail-out by the government.
Please don’t take my word for this, look it up for yourself. Also, you cannot argue with this statement of facts unless you dispute the N. Y. Times, a historically leftist rag if there ever was one.
Good grief, Sargent, even you have to feel embarassed about this effort.
Jan: “How many of the shrillest, loudest, angriest citizens are the same ones who most enthusiastically argued for the Iraq war . . . . BTW: That is how the Nazi movement in Germany was described by Albert Einstein, as a national psychosis.” Heh, can’t even make this stuff up.
TonyB: “No, what they want is for everyone else to build their own lifeboats and handcarts…”
Heck with that, we all just wait for everyone else to build our life boats for us. Oh, wait . . .