This week it has been well reported the number of incidents or threats posed to members of Congress from both sides of the aisle in the wake of the historic and controversial passage of health care legislation Sunday night (and re-voted on and approved in the House last night).
In the beginning of the week most of the actions were against Democrats, but in recent days members from both parties have encountered troubling incidents.
Yesterday Brooksville Republican Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite reported she received a voice mail at her district office that said, “Just wanna let you know I have 27 people that are going to make sure that this b**** does not live to see her next term. Good-bye”. Read the rest of the Congresswoman's press release:
Upon receiving the message, Congresswoman Brown–Waite contacted both the Capitol Police and the Hernando County Sheriff. They are looking into the matter and subpoenaing telephone records. Ginny is going to insist that these threats be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Congresswoman Brown–Waite provided this statement on the matter:
“There are laws that state threatening a Federal official is a serious crime. No one should take these death threats lightly. I will find the person who threatened to kill me and insure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
But while the Brooksville Representative was understandably shook up by this cowardly action, one of her leaders, Republican whip Eric Cantor, blasted Democrats for making a political issue out of the fact that several of their members (such as Louise Slaughter, Gabrielle Giffords, Anthony Weiner, and Bart Stupak among others) had been attacked verbally or had bricks thrown in their offices.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.