Speaking Of the Tea Party And Racism

The incident occurred Saturday after thousands of Tea Partiers descended upon Capitol Hill to rally against Sunday's major vote on health care reform.

Some of the protesters targeted a handful of black members of Congress and one gay lawmaker as they walked from the House office buildings to the Capitol to make a procedural vote.

Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga, and Andre Carson, D-Ind., both members of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that a group of protesters hollered at them and called them the N-word.

"They were just shouting. Harassing," Lewis told Fox News. "People being downright mean."

Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver who is black and said police escorted the lawmakers into the Capitol. Cleaver's office said he would decline to press charges, but Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail later: "We did not make any arrests today."

To their credit, Michael Steele went on the Sunday Talk Shows to throw the Teabaggists under the bus, as did Amy Kremer, who organized the rally.

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele and one of the organizers of Saturday's Tea Party rally strongly condemned the racial slurs that some black lawmakers alleged were yelled at them by some health care protesters as they headed for a procedural vote at Capitol Hill.

"I absolutely think it's isolated," Amy Kremer, the grassroots coordinator of the Tea Party Express, told Fox News on Sunday. "It's disgraceful and the people in this movement won't tolerate it because that's not what we're about."

Steele rejected the notion that the incident may make any association with the Tea Party Movement a danger.

"It's not a danger," Steele told NBC's "Meet the Press on Sunday." "It's certainly not a reflection of the movement or the Republican Party when you have idiots out there saying stupid things."

Considering the high regard in which Michael Steele is held by the Tea Party movement, this oughtta stop nonsense like that once and for all. I wonder if Amy Kremer will show up on Monday only to find her office supplies in a box?

Sadly I'm unable to find any coverage which will offer a better estimate of how many of the crowd were behaving this way. The best anyone seems able to offer is "some protesters." More than one, less than all of them. Guess you had to be there. Bet you're glad you weren't!