Oh, You ‘Idiot Liberals’!
Hey, don’t get mad at me, it was Democrat David Obey that said it:
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that “idiot liberals” don’t understand the war supplemental spending bill process.
The altercation was videotaped and posted on www.youtube.com .
“We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war,” Obey said. “You can’t end the war if you’re going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understood that.”
David Swanson, a liberal blogger with AfterDownStreet.org, posted a YouTube video of the encounter on www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19392 and sent the link to reporters Thursday night.
The unidentified woman told Obey she was the mother of a Marine who had been deployed to Iraq who was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder and wasn’t receiving adequate treatment from military hospitals. She then asked why Obey was not cutting off funding for the war.
Obey responded that the Washington Post has been running numerous stories on the inadequacies of military hospitals and that Congress is holding hearings on the topic, adding that the supplemental spending bill includes extra money for military healthcare.
A few moments later he grew angry and began attacking liberal groups for failing to understand how the supplemental bill, of which he is a sponsor, would affect the war.
“The liberal groups are jumping around without knowing what the hell is in the bill,” he bellowed. “You don’t have to cut off funds for an activity that doesn’t exist.”
“The language we have in the resolution ends the authority for the war,” he added. “It makes it illegal to proceed with the war. You don’t have to de-fund something if the war doesn’t exist.”
It is unclear if Obey was aware he was being videotaped. Most of the video is shot from waist level. House rules for the media stipulate that members of Congress must approve when they are being videotaped. But this footage was apparently not shot by a member of the media.Obey stressed the need for liberal groups to understand that cutting off military funding means de-funding important military programs, such as hospitals for veterans.
“I’m not going to deny body armor. I’m not going to deny funding for veterans’ hospitals and for defense hospitals so you can help people that have health problems. That’s what you do if you go against that bill,” he added.
Asked about passing a resolution to end the war, Obey screamed that they did not have the votes.
“We don’t have the votes to pass [a resolution],” he yelled. “We couldn’t even get the votes to pass a non-binding resolution one week ago. How the hell do you think we’re going to get the votes to cut off the war?”
“You cut off the funding,” an onlooker replied.
“How, if you don’t have the votes?” Obey roared in response. “That bill ends the war! If that isn’t good enough for you, you’re smoking something illegal. You’ve got your facts screwed up.”
“We can’t get the votes! Do you see a magic wand in my pocket?” he continued, opening his suit jacket as if to display an empty pocket. “We don’t have the votes for it. We do have the votes if you guys quit screwing it up. We do have the votes to end the legal authority for the war, that’s the same as de-funding it.”
When The Hill contacted him Friday about the videotaped encounter, Obey immediately apologized for getting angry with the woman, saying that his immense frustration about “this stupid war” boiled over.
“Once in a while that frustration boils over, I wish it hadn’t but you cannot continue conversations forever,” he said.
He also continued to skewer “liberal groups” for failing to inform the members and the public that the war supplemental spending bill contains language aimed at ending the war.
Also, don’t miss Michelle Malkin’s transcript, which is a lot more fun because it tries to put the emphasis in the right places…
Mother in Obey video not just any mom but an established antiwar activist
By now you have see the Rep. David Obey implosion via You Tube. You can view it on Michelle Malkin’s site. But what about that mother, Tina Richards who identified herself as a mother of a marine? Was she there for a simple question or was th…
He’s already apologized and blamed his behavior on his frustration over the war and President Bush. Which reminds me of Jenny’s antiwar boyfriend in Forrest Gump apologizing for slapping her around by blaming “this stupid war and the lying son-of-a-b**** Johnson!” But that’s beside the point.
Beyond that, the line he’s spouting seems a bit fuzzy, to say the least. He’s got the votes to just put an end to the war, but not to defund it? I don’t think he’s making the stakes clear to those folks he was talking to, or else he’s telling them one thing and telling something else to more conservative Democratic representatives who aren’t so hot to end the war immediately.
Dennis:
I rember that line, specifically because it made me — and only me — bust out laughing when I heard it. It also reminds me of HI’s infamous (to me) line from “Raising Arizona” when he says — just before attempting to rob a Stop N Go with a shotgun — “I tried to stay on the straight and narrow, but it wasn’t easy with that sonofab… Reagan in the White House. They say he’s a good man so, I’don’t know (cocks shotgun). Maybe his advisers are at fault.”