Video: Koch protests include calls to lynch Clarence Thomas; Update: Common Cause “outraged” over comments

posted at 12:55 pm on February 3, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Yes, these comments come from the attendees, not the speakers at the protest organized by Common Cause at the Koch political conference, but according to the media rules on covering the Tea Party, that makes all liberals racists, and also responsible for the murders committed by Kermit Gosnell in his abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Right?

Granted, the cameraman is trying to get the people to say something outrageous, but he also doesn’t have to try very hard. He asks people at the rally what “we” should do after impeaching Clarence Thomas to get justice for Anita Hill, and he gets some mighty interesting answers:  Send him “back to the fields.” “String him up.” “Hang him.” “Torture.” One older woman wants his wife Ginny Thomas strung up as well. A younger and more creative woman wants Justice Thomas’ toes chopped off and forced-fed to him. Thomas isn’t the only one to get the necktie treatment; one protester wants Fox News executive Roger Ailes to get hung as well.

Big Government notes the hypocrisy of the protests:

Among Common Cause’s, well, common causes, are campaign finance reform, net neutrality, outlawing the filibuster, promoting cap and trade, and in this particular case, herding a mass of protesters outside a nearby hotel to yell at Charles and David Koch for being conservative and rich.

Unfortunately several “haves” have missed the memo that you’re not to be both rich and conservative at the same time, and that bankrolling your pet causes is an extra no-no if you’re conservative—thus exempting left-wing billionaire philanthropists George Soros (from whom Common Cause has received $2 million over the past eight years) Peter Lewis, John Doerr, Julian RobertsonNicolas Berggruen, and many others from being yelled at too.

At the morning panel event featuring UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, activist Jim Hightower, Center for American Progress journalist and “Koch Brothers expert” Lee Fang, California Nurses Association co-president DeAnn McEwan, and President Obama’s former green jobs czar Van Jones, we were forewarned of the impending demise of both the environment and democracy at the hands of corporate lobbyists and their government shills.

There was eerily no mention of GE, AEP, Goldmann Sachs, Pfizer, Aetna, Alcoa, Xerox, Google, Motorola, IBM, or several other corporate giants who profit at taxpayer expense via their K Street connections to the Obama White House as well as the very economic and regulatory policies they lobby that these Common Cause panelists commonly endorse. But I’m sure that’s only because no one wanted to point out the obvious. Right?

Will the media cover the violence inherent on the Left with the same passion they pursued those non-existent connections between the Tucson shooter and Sarah Palin?  Will the Southern Poverty Law Center report on the “Rage on the Left” and label Common Cause a racist hate group?

Update: RB at The RightSphere makes my point more eloquently:

How long have we heard the steady mantra: “The Tea Party is racist”? Since day one. Nearly every Leftist pundit, columnist, and “journalist” on the planet has at some point or another implied or flat out stated that the Tea Party movement is racist. Congressmen have even accused Tea Party / Anti-HCR protesters of using the “n word” and spitting on them during rallies. To this day many still claim this happened despite the lack of evidence.

Are there racists who are also Tea Partiers? Of course. As the video proves, there are racists everywhere… even on the Left. Do those racists speak for the entire movement? Of course not. Do those racists represent even a significant portion of the movement? Only insofar as the racists in the video above represent a significant portion of the Left. But that has never stopped the Left from hurling their accusations against the entire conservative movement or the Tea Party, has it?

Let’s just imagine if the video above was taken during a Tea Party rally and several participants stated that a sitting US Supreme Court Justice should be sent “back to the fields” or “strung up”. Picture the news coverage. Predict what Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann (if he still had a show) would be saying right now and over the next few days. It would be non-stop. Democrat Congressional members would be using the tape as “proof” of what is really behind the opposition to ObamaCare or any other piece of legislation they want to get passed.

“The racist Tea Party.” That’s all you’d hear.

All you’ll hear about this in the national media is … the sounds of crickets chirping.

Update II: Common Cause has issued a statement condemning the remarks:

Common Cause’s 40 year history of holding power accountable has been marked by a commitment to decency and civility – in public and private. So we are of course outraged to find that a few of those attending the events around a gathering Common Cause helped to organize Sunday near Palm Springs voiced hateful, narrow-minded sentiments to an interviewer in the crowd.

We condemn bigotry and hate speech in every form, even when it comes from those who fancy themselves as our friends.

Anyone who has attended a public event has encountered people whose ideas or acts misrepresented, even embarrassed, the gathering. Every sporting event has its share of “fans” whose boorish behavior on the sidelines makes a mockery of good sportsmanship; every political gathering has a crude sign-painter or epithet-spewing heckler.

Yes, which was the exact same point that Tea Party organizers made when the media focused on the outliers (and usually provocateurs) that showed up at their rallies, and which was, in fact, the entire point of this post, too.


Related Posts:

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Comment pages: 1 2 3

Let me tell you, I’d never hire someone with your negative, humorless, defeatist attitude….
Anti-Control on May 20, 2013 at 5:14 PM

Jeez. Guess I won’t send you my résumé.

But you’re missing the point I’m trying to make (unsuccessfully of course). I’m perfectly willing to laugh at Obama, but I voted for the other guys (and gal).

My sense of humor (or lack thereof) is not the issue. The issue is Alinsky tactics against people that are not ashamed of what we consider “bad” behavior. The leftists are proud of the IRS targeting Tea Party groups. They are proud of Candy Crawley lying during a debate for Obama. They love this stuff.

Instead of attacking me personally, why not actually show me a demonstration of Alinsky tactics being sucessfully used against leftists. Or if there are no real world examples, how about a hypothetical.

happytobehere on May 20, 2013 at 5:27 PM

While you douche-bags are covering politics…people and children in a flattened school are dead from the most destructive tornado in recent history.
stingray9813 on May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM

What a moronic comment and commenter!

Schadenfreude on May 20, 2013 at 5:28 PM

While you douche-bags are covering politics…people and children in a flattened school are dead from the most destructive tornado in recent history.
stingray9813 on May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM

You are a vulture, a ghoul, trying to use the deaths of children to divert attention from Obama’s crimes, which include the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican civilians, including children, from all the ObamaGuns from Obama’s Gun Running Merchant of Death Program, his Rolling 9/11 against Mexico.

VorDaj on May 20, 2013 at 5:29 PM

Classic case of projection.

GWB on May 20, 2013 at 5:15 PM

stingray is desperately trying to practice the politics of distraction because it worked in the past. Let him think it still works while this administration takes a pounding and the left turns on itself before our eyes.

Daemonocracy on May 20, 2013 at 5:30 PM

stingray9813 on May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM

You sound like a scared Obamaton.

Schadenfreude on May 20, 2013 at 5:30 PM

stingray9813 on May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM

carrion-consuming azzhole

Schadenfreude on May 20, 2013 at 5:31 PM

It appears the prosecutors’ statements about Rosen having potentially committed a crime were aimed at allowing them to proceed through use of a search warrant rather than a grand jury subpoena or other means.

It appears that a judge bought this lie without a shred of evidence.

Unless this judge puts the liar(s) in jail for a good long period under a contempt charge Congress should defund that court.

RJL on May 20, 2013 at 5:32 PM

Thanks for being me to me. I’m the one who consistently makes that point, perhaps the only one until you.

Next time try to tell me something I haven’t already said over and over.

Capitalist Hog on May 20, 2013 at 4:10 PM

I don’t think you’re making a point. I think you’re imaging demons where there are none. Being critical of the MSM is not equal to wishing the MSM’s rights were violated or restricted. Being critical is just another part of the 1st Amendment.

NotCoach on May 20, 2013 at 5:33 PM

Federal judge finds probable cause Fox News reporter helped leak classified docs

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/20/federal-judge-finds-probable-cause-fox-news-reporter-helped-leak-classified-docs/‘

stingray9813 on May 20, 2013 at 5:00 PM

You should learn to read. The ‘crime’ that Rosen supposedly committed is soliciting classified information from Kim. In other words, the judge found probable cause that something that isn’t a crime, happened.

rightmind on May 20, 2013 at 5:43 PM

Spock, I’ve found that evil usually triumphs – unless good is very, very careful.”

GWB on May 20, 2013 at 4:34 PM

Yeap that’s why the world today is ruled by total evil. That’s why the Nazi’s are moving into LA and the communists are taking options on a nice Tampa location. Evil is always destroyed because it destroys itself. It is the nature of evil to eat its own. Even now you can see it occurring in the WH. The press sec is trying to tell people the POTUS knew nothing about it but the consul and tresury did and didn’t tell him. How long do you think it will take for those “fall guys” to give the POTUS up? Sooner or later one of them turns and gives the information to deepthroat. Evil looks out for itself and by doing so it losses in the end. They turn on each other. It always happens. Why? who knows. it may survive for a time when the good do nothing but once good starts to fight evil it ends. Look at any evil regime or evil human activity. Slavary, facism, communism, fuedalism they all destoryed themselves. Sure some lasted for a while others lasted for a blip of time. But in the end they lose. The more good people fights the evil the quicker it ends.

This isn’t sci-fi this is human history. This is the way the world works.

unseen on May 20, 2013 at 5:46 PM

That’s why the Nazi’s are moving into LA and the communists are taking options on a nice Tampa location.

Wait… Are you suggesting they aren’t?

Sure. Different people, but the same ideology IS / has.

Just stealthily, not by the force of arms.

LegendHasIt on May 20, 2013 at 5:50 PM

Speaking for yourself.

VegasRick on May 20, 2013 at 5:19 PM

Yep, me and any moron stupid enough to reply.

Capitalist Hog on May 20, 2013 at 6:31 PM

Why weeks to find this out?

Schadenfreude on May 20, 2013 at 6:42 PM

My wife did some e-mail with Rosen, then noticed that get LinkedIn was visited by DHS

J_Crater on May 20, 2013 at 7:13 PM

Jeez. Guess I won’t send you my résumé.

But you’re missing the point I’m trying to make (unsuccessfully of course). I’m perfectly willing to laugh at Obama, but I voted for the other guys (and gal).

My sense of humor (or lack thereof) is not the issue. The issue is Alinsky tactics against people that are not ashamed of what we consider “bad” behavior. The leftists are proud of the IRS targeting Tea Party groups. They are proud of Candy Crawley lying during a debate for Obama. They love this stuff.

Instead of attacking me personally, why not actually show me a demonstration of Alinsky tactics being sucessfully used against leftists. Or if there are no real world examples, how about a hypothetical.

happytobehere on May 20, 2013 at 5:27 PM

I am going to address this in a way you probably won’t like, but that’s not my concern here.

You are a person who suffers from “‘Why?‘ Well, because I say so!” What good advice could someone like you give to a person who’s forced to deal with abusive addicts in denial? Personally, I don’t believe you’d have a clue about such a situation…I think you have a snarky, negative, hopeless & joyless attitude which does not lend itself to creativity nor problem-solving, and I believe that until you can figure out on your own why Alinsky believed in the truth of his Rule #5, there is no common ground between us for discussion on how to best counter leftards.

PS I want give you credit for something – I don’t believe you are a jerk! :)

Anti-Control on May 20, 2013 at 7:40 PM

Anti-Control on May 20, 2013 at 7:40 PM

Can’t say I disagree with anything you wrote. I’m quite joyless about this stuff, I admit. I doubt I’ll be too in your way as you joyfully knock down the Dems and take back the country.

I do understand the concept of “projection”. I do understand that Alinsky probably hated being mocked or whatever. I’m sure that is why he utilized this tactic. What I’m trying to say, and if you have an example of this please provide it, is that I have no knowledge of an actual demonstration of mockery working against the immoral Left. If someone is utterly without scruples how do mock them successfully? It’s easy for a community organizer to ridicule a well meaning local business etc. because the business actually means well! They don’t want to be thought of as horrible people. I think the Left likes to be thought of as horrible, I don’t think it dissuades them, quite the contrary.

But I do actually appreciate the continuous criticism of me personally. I would rather be upbeat about our future as a nation. That’s why I ask about this stuff. Probably a better way to help me be more upbeat is to cite some examples of Alinsky 5 working against the left.

happytobehere on May 20, 2013 at 8:39 PM

“Holder knows where the proverbial bodies are buried…”
He knows where the real bodies are buried, too.

lobo603 on May 20, 2013 at 9:42 PM

Capitalist Hog on May 20, 2013 at 4:48 PM

So basically, you just come here to treat people in a manner you don’t have the nerve to display in person? And thanks for pointing out the anonymity. Who knew?

Cindy Munford on May 20, 2013 at 9:53 PM

Comment pages: 1 2 3