[Vision2020] Lawmaker is Asked "Who's Gonna Shoot Obama?"

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of Talking Points Memo at:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/witness_republican_laughed_when_asked_whos_gonna_shoot_obama.ph

---------------------------------------------------------

Witnesses: Republican Laughed When Asked 'Who's Gonna Shoot Obama?'

Witnesses tell TPM that Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) laughed when an elderly man
at his town hall meeting this week asked "Who's gonna shoot Obama?"

Mark Farmer of Winterville, Georgia went to the meeting on Tuesday to ask
a question about Social Security reform, and said in an e-mail to TPM he
was "shocked by the first question and disgusted by the audience
response."

"I was gravely disappointed in the response of a U.S. Congressman who also
laughed and then made no effort to correct the questioner on what
constitutes proper behavior or to in any way distance himself from such
hate filled language," Farmer wrote.

Reporter Blake Aued, who was at the town hall and originally reported on
the incident confirmed to TPM that Broun was "chuckling a little bit."

Aued described the person who asked the question as "some old man" who
"apparently was a huge fan" and had driven 75 miles to get to the meeting.

After laughing at the question, Broun reportedly said "there's a lot of
frustration with this president."

"We're going to have an election next year," Broun said. "Hopefully, we'll
elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government
president that will take a smaller... who will sign a bill to repeal and
replace Obamacare."

A Secret Service spokesman tells Greg Sargent that the agency was aware of
the incident, had taken appropriate steps, and now consider it a closed
matter. A law enforcement source told Sargent that the Secret Service
interviewed the person who made the comments who now regrets making a bad
joke.

"In this case this was poor taste," the source told Sargent. "The person
realized that."

I've asked a spokesman for Broun if that was an accurate account of the
congressman's reaction and they said they'll get back to me shortly.

Meanwhile, Broun hosted another town hall meeting last night, where he was
cheered for cutting off funding to NPR and PBS as well as Planned
Parenthood and said illegal immigrants need to be treated as criminals.

---------------------------------------------------------

Hmmm.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown