Heath Shuler: Actually, I didn't hear any racial slurs the day O-Care passed

But when we phoned Shuler’s office this afternoon, press secretary Julie Fishman told us the local reporter misunderstood. According to Fishman, Shuler’s comments to the Times-News referred to the general tenor of the protests, not to the black congressmen’s specific allegations.

Fishman said that Shuler was not walking with Cleaver and did not hear the “N-word.” Shuler was, however, in proximity to Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and heard someone call Frank, as Fishman put it, a “communist F-word” (that would be “faggot,” not the other F-word). At least one reporter also was said to have heard the antigay slur directed at Frank, so we’re inclined to believe that claim. But the allegations of racial slurs remain uncorroborated.