Republican Congressman Dan Lungren from California's Third District just doesn't understand what the big deal is with all the publicity about threats of violence to members of Congress. After all, when some psycho bothers him, he just laughs it off like the badass he thinks he is:
"He started using profanities and telling me how I was a criminal and I ought to go to jail," Lungren said. "Then he pulled the motorcycle to the other side of the car, where my wife was, and repeated the very same thing, to which my wife responded, 'Have a nice Easter.' "
Lungren said he didn't feel any particular need to publicize the harassment. And he wishes more of his colleagues would follow suit.
Yeah, that Dan Lungren is one tough hombre, and all those wimpy Democrats should just chill and ignore the sniper threats, the overt racism and sexism, the repeated refrains about "reloading" and "we came unarmed this time" and "blood of tyrants," the grotesque messages left for Bart Stupak, and everything else--because Dan Lungren would just brush that dirt off his shoulder like the macho man he is.
After all, says Dan--it's not like it's any worse than it normally is:
"I have no evidence at this point that there is a steep rise in threats or that it's a more dangerous situation with respect to members of Congress," he said.
But not so, says...Fox News, of all people:
House and Senate lawmakers reported 42 threats from January to March, compared with 15 in the last three months of 2009, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer said in a story posted on the newspaper's Web site late Thursday. Nearly all the threats, including at least three that led to arrests, appeared to come from people who opposed the health care bill Democrats championed and President Barack Obama signed into law last month.
Most of the threats were aimed at members of the House, said Gainer, the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police.
"The incidents ranged from very vulgar to serious threats, including death threats," he said. "The ability to carry them out is another question and part of an investigation to determine what, if any, appropriate steps to take."
So, now we've established that Dan Lungren is a liar. But let's see how tough he really is. The current Congressman used to serve as California's Attorney General until his replacement by Bill Lockyer in 1999. So let's see what the Attorney General's office looked like during his tenure...
First to go is what Lockyer calls "the bomb shelter," the attorney general's special big-enough-for- two-cars parking space sealed with a steel door.
According to employees whom Lockyer e-mailed to solicit suggestions on improving how the department works, Dan Lungren, Lockyer's predecessor, would call from his Ford Explorer en route to the office.
The door to the parking spot would rise. Lungren would park, monitored by a security camera in the upper right-hand corner of the enclosed area. The door would close.
Lungren would then go to the private elevator entrance in the "bunker." Alerted to his arrival, department staff would have to get off one of the six office elevators, which would then whisk Lungren up to the 17th floor where the attorney general's offices are.
While Lungren was in his office, that elevator was kept empty, reserved for his use, Lockyer said.
Based on that, it seems like mafioso Dan took a lot of precautions to preserve his own security, to the inconvenience of anyone around him--thus establishing that Dan Lungren is not only not a badass, he is a liar and a hypocrite to boot.
Fortunately, the Third District has a better choice: Dr. Ami Bera, one of the candidates on the DCCC's Red to Blue list.