Brody's Notes... Republican Tea Party Advocates Say Slurs Against Colleagues Not A Big Deal

Rep. Steve King (R-IA)   Photo By Advocate.com

 By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 22 | Two Republican Congressmen who are leading voices for the Tea Party movement shrugged off racial epithets & homophobic slurs directed at their House Democratic colleagues, Congressmen John Lewis, who was called a 'Nigger' by Tea party protesters, as well as Rep. Barney Frank who was referred to as a 'Faggot.' Protesters also spat on Missouri Democrat, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who happens to be African-American, on Saturday as Tea Party activists surrounded Congressional office buildings on Capitol Hill as the Health Care Reform Bill was being debated.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), in an interview with  correspondent Jennifer Bendery of the Capitol Hill Newspaper Roll Call, told her that;

“I just don’t think it’s anything,” King said, emphasizing that the incidents were isolated. “There are a lot of places in this country that I couldn’t walk through. I wouldn’t live to get to the other end of it.”

To focus on a few incidents is “embellishing something that is determined to undermine the people,” said the Iowa conservative.

Earlier in the day during a live interview on the C-SPAN programme Washington Journal, another Republican lawmaker also brushed off the racial epithets and suggested they were prompted by the parliamentary maneuvers being used by Democrats to pass a health care bill:

“When you use a totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said. “I think that people have every right to say what they want. If they want to smear someone, they can do it.”