We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. — Aesop
Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling “you’re a disgrace to your office” and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill.
In a moment of apparently unscripted political theater, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched arm in arm — with civil rights pioneer John Lewis — across the Capitol complex while protesters yelled at them and police held a barricade.
The Pelosi disruption came inside the Cannon office building, where Democrats where whipping the final votes for the historic health care overhaul. When Pelosi said “We’re doing this for the American people,” a protestor yelled “you’re doing this TO the American people!”
Someone in the crowd yelled “faggot” — an epithet overheard by a POLITICO reporter — at Frank, who is gay. A group of Catholics supporting reform sang a chorus of “we love you Barney, oh yes we do.”
“It’s like the Salem witch trials, and healthcare is the witches,” Frank said. “There is mass hysteria.”
Some Republican lawmakers encouraged the protesters.
As the House was voting on an unrelated bill, Republican Reps. Tom Latham of Iowa, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Greg Harper of Mississippi stood on south balcony off the House floor – an area known informally as “the beach” — holding pieces of paper that read “kill the bill” to a group of cheering protestors. Some Republican lawmakers waved a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag from the balcony, causing the crowd to go wild.
Later in the afternoon, about a dozen House Republicans stood on the balcony and held up small signs that said “No” in red magic marker. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) held up a picture of Pelosi and the crowd booed, chanting her name.
Inside the House chamber, a protester was ejected by Capitol Police after yelling from the House gallery.
Frank was visibly angry with his GOP colleagues whom he believed goaded the protesters.
“Did you guys see the Republicans encouraging the disruption?” Frank left the House floor to tell about 15 reporters. “These clowns are out there encouraging violation of the law and making the job of the guys up there harder. It’s really disgraceful.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said he believed “Its in bad taste for people [lawmakers] to go and encourage them.”
Outside the Capitol on a brilliant spring afternoon, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched across the Capitol complex — after Lewis gave a speech to the Democratic caucus that motivated the impromptu walk.
The five-minute unplanned walk of the Democratic caucus from Cannon to the Capitol led to complete chaos. Pelosi held the gavel that was used to pass Medicare. The rest of the members locked arms. Police shoved reporters, and the members flowed out of Cannon into streets where protesters loudly screamed “Kill the Bill.”