By now just about everyone has seen the video of Rep. Barney Frank clowning on a crazy right wing protestor who decided it was a good idea to compare President Obama to Hitler in front of a gay Jewish man. While I understand his reaction (and really enjoyed watching it), Rep. Frank should have avoided the all-too-easy ad hominem attacks and stuck to criticism of the protester’s ideas themselves. Here’s what I would have done if I were in old Barney’s shoes: (more…)

I’d like to make a quick follow-up to my post yesterday about the health care debate and rightwing mobs. One of the hottest YouTube videos in the last 24 hours is a video of an Israeli expatriate defending health care reform at an event in Las Vegas. Off-camera, a woman shouts at him, “Heil Hitler!”

Conservatives need not distance themselves from crazy people like this, or from the lady who called Barack Obama a Nazi to Jewish Congressman Barney Frank’s face; we know that they are not representative of mainstream opinion in the United States. Unfortunately, this just goes to prove my earlier point — that a few far-right screamers have hijacked the political scene with the help of a news media interested only in conflict and people showing up to town hall meetings with loaded assault rifles.