North Carolinians have two incredible reporters who also run full-time blogs. They are Mark Binker and Laura Leslie. If the editors of this site want to know about North Carolina politics, they need to keep these two on their RSS readers. They are truly impartial, giving it to the Democrats as often as to the Republicans. They allow the online community in North Carolina to peek behind the curtains of power and to understand the ins and outs of Raleigh negotiations. So, when one of them called my attention to this:
"Oh, you think that’s funny?!" the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that’s real funny..." he said.
And then he kicked the back of leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
I had to bring it here for the whole world to see.
Digg it!
Joe was working with me on a package for tomorrow's newspaper covering Gov. Sarah Palin's visit to Elon and Greensboro.
"Dude," he says when I called to check on him. "Some guy just kicked me in the back of the leg."
The aggression and anger that McCain/Palin have caused with their hate mail and hate calls has started turning political rallies into riots. And, no wonder, what with their latest robocalls to North Carolina.
I feel like cutting and pasting the entire post from Mark Binker, but instead I'll just give you a few highlights, please go read it yourself and give Mark Binker some much-deserved traffic.
As you probably know, the crowds at McCain-Palin events have gotten, um, saucy as of late. My boss blogs about that here.
Covering Sen. John McCain's apperance in Wilmington Monday, you could definitely sense some of that vibe.
Cut to today, Palin in town. In general, I walked in sensing the crowd had a more positive vibe than the McCain rally.
That changed when I heard a ruckous behind me. ...
Joe was near a second group of protestors who got tossed. And he got some push back for investigating as well. After the rally wound down, he went to find some Obama folks and see if he could talk to who got put out.
That's when at least one guy from the crowd decided he needed to interject his opinion into the conversation. As Joe tells it:
I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.
As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.
"Hey, hey," I said. "I’m trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay?"
...
"Oh, you think that’s funny?!" the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that’s real funny..." he said.
And then he kicked the back of leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
...
There was no cop or security officer around to report this lugnut to, and Joe resisted the temptation to smack the guy back, which I commend. But let me say this: the guy who attacked Joe is a criminal, no better that the lunk-head who steels your car stereo or snatches a purse.
...
After today I'm wondering - and this is just wondering at this point - whether Republicans aren't in some respect giving their supporters license for this sort of crap. If the story you pedal is that your guys are the good guys and all those who stand against them are the bad guys, and the "liberal media" is in that second column, might there be a message there – even if it is one that is misconstrued and carried to a stupid extreme in some cases?
UPDATE: I totally missed that fellow BlueNC blogger funluvn wrote about this last night. And, funluvn was wise enough to include text from Joe's own blog post about the event.
From my position there I saw the bottoms of a number of feet almost accidentally stomping me to death as the two political camps screamed back and forth, the music continued to blare and some of the Obama crowd moved the large bearded man and his friends away. When I was helped to my feet the bearded man was walking away quickly.
For a moment I considered running the bloated, twelve-sandwich eating prick down and beating the living hell out of him...and then I remembered that I’m a reporter, how much I enjoy being gainfully employed and how hard it would be to keep my job if I got into a fistfight with a guy at a political rally.
So instead I limped off to try to find a security guard or cop.
When I did the guy was nowhere to be found.
"He’s this big fat guy with a brown beard and he’s wearing a McCain-Palin shirt and hat," I said.
And then felt like an idiot. I was surrounded by people who fit that description.
So I simply limped to my car fuming.