The way things are going, this weekend may not only be remembered as the time we overhauled health care. It may also be remembered as the time the Republican Party officially became a right-wing fringe party. In the space of 48 hours, we saw three instances of behavior that has no place in civilized discourse. And the response from our Repub friends? Silence.
Let's review. Early Friday morning, an idiot in Niagara Falls threw a brick through the window of Louise Slaughter's office. On Saturday, several teabaggers held up signs implicitly threatening violence if the bill passed and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at our congressmen. And on Saturday night, the chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party gave out Earl Pomeroy's personal cell phone number on statewide television.
You'd think some of our Repub friends would be joining us in denouncing this garbage. But unless I've missed something, they haven't as of yet.
If the Repubs had any designs on being responsible, then somebody on the other side would have extended sympathy to Slaughter. Somebody on the other side would have taken to the floor the way Bob Dole did 20 years ago and said to the teabaggers, "This is not politics. This is garbage. And we are disgusted by it." And every prominent Republican in North Dakota would have denounced giving out a politician's personal cell number.
The ball is in the GOP's court. Call this unhinged behavior for what it is, or you will only prove that all you're interested in is saying "No!"--no matter what the cost.