Tag: Right Wing Terrorism
Grassley Lets Call for Violence Against ‘Little Hitler’ and ‘Washington’ Stand
During the public comment period of a town hall in Iowa this week led by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, an elderly veteran took the microphone and called for violence against the president and the United States government:
“The president of the United States, that’s who you should be concerned about. Because he’s acting like a little Hitler,” said Tom Eisenhower, a World War II veteran. “I’d take a gun to Washington if enough of you would go with me.”
Grassley — whose oath of office includes swearing fealty to the Constitution and thus the government, and who lives in Washington — pointedly did not disassociate himself from Eisenhower’s call to arms against the government. Instead, the senator responded with faint praise of Pres. Obama followed by a long, rambling spin through RNC talking points that included a laundry list of wrongs the president has perpetrated on the country in the scant seven months he’s been in office.
Among these complaints, a good many were actually perpetrated by Obama’s predecessor. In particular, it is rich that Grassley decried the “Federal Reserve dropping money out of airplanes,” when it was the Bush Administration that, in 2003, shrink-wrapped $100 bills in bundles and then flew 281 million notes weighing 363 tons — $12 billion — into Iraq, where it disappeared forever.
Sen. Grassley was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee at the time, and never lifted a finger to investigate what is likely the biggest single-shot intra-government heist in world history.
But Grassley’s failure to distance himself from a call for destruction of the government is practically statesmanlike compared to the praise Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) heaped upon a man at a town hall meeting last week who described himself as a “right-wing terrorist.”
“God bless you,” Herger responded. “There goes a great American.” Through a spokesperson, Herger has refused to apologize for endorsing terrorism.
These and other Republican pols are playing with fire. Their silence in response to calls of violence by extremists in their base is de facto assent to the threats — and their assent is now in the public record.
GOP Rep. Herger Praises Self-Identified Right-Wing Terrorist As a ‘Great American’
In light of his statements during a town hall on Aug. 18, it would be good to hear whether Rep. Wally Herger, a Republican representing a rural district near the California-Oregon border, agrees that these killers are “great Americans.”
At the town hall, Herger — a Mormon and former oil executive who has served in Congress since 1987 — first stoked hatred for the U.S. government by right-wingers in the crowd of 2,000 by spuriously claiming that health-insurance reform is dangerous:
