The Democratic Party has issued “talking points” to its minions defending 2nd Dist. Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge’s attack on a young man with a camera who identified himself as a student and asked if the congressman supported the Obama agenda:
“Motives matter, and I think you can see who was behind this,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse just now. “This was a Republican party tracking operation. If it wasn’t a party tracker or intern, why is the face blurred and why is the source hidden? You know if it had been a right wing blog, they’d identify themselves and they’d be booking this person on TV all day. Republicans know if they admit their involvement in this game of gotcha it will undermine their credibility. One minute this guy is interviewing a member of Congress on camera and the next a video is released with his face blurred out? If that doesn’t tell you this is a Republican Party hatchet job nothing will.”
All of which ignores the fact that Etheridge snapped at the asking of a simple question and put the kid in a headlock, grabbed his camera and twisted his wrist, all the while asking in a loud voice, “Who are you?” Even if it was a Republican set-up, there is no excuse for this kind of reaction by a person who holds any office higher than middle school student body president.
All Etheridge had to do was smile and ask where the person was from, say he supported some parts of the Obama agenda and was opposed to others, and that he just wanted what’s best for the country. How simple is that, even if it is B.S.? But he didn’t do that, maybe, as some are speculating, because he’d stood a little too close to the open bar at that Pelosi fundraiser he’d just attended.
