Well, given the changing demographics of the U.S., the GOP's racism is its own epitaph, so there's that.

Funny thing , stop me if you have heard this one before . In the 60's and 70's I thought I heard an epitaph for the Lords of the John Birch Society . He he he , so funny .

Rep. Mike Pence: "reprehensible",
Rep. John Boehner: "reprehensible",
Michael Steele: "reprehensible"

Even in their feigned disgust, these clowns never go off script.

"isolated incidents"?

The problem is we're talking about the backbone of the Republican Party, the mindset of its base.

I've been considering just what epithet I want on my gravestone.

The timing issue is perhaps a bigger one -- big enough to cancel out Steve's kindly "better late than never." The only way Boehner et al. would convince me that their hearts are in the right place after all (or even that they have hearts) would have been personal appearances instanter in front of the very crowd that had been yelling "epitaphs" at Lewis and colleagues. Boehner doesn't have that kind of guts, though.

Starting in mid-December of 2000, I've wanted to see a huge crowd gather in Washington and chant "shame, shame" when the right does outrageous things. SCOTUS deserves attention from shamers, as did Bush's White House on any number of occasions, not to mention the crowd gathered at that hotel in Nashville in February and then later at the Marriott in DC.

I'll agree that the people who said it was 'reprehensible' were saying what they thought. But I'll also bet that the tea-baggers in DC who were hanging around the Congressional offices had Republican dollars in their pockets.

What I don't like is this:

When it's someone saying something distasteful or vaguely threatening, it's free expression.

When it's someone saying something racist or overtly threatening, it's reprehensible.

When it's someone doing something harmful to others, like throwing a brick through a congresswoman's window, or crashing a plane into the IRS, it's an isolated incident.

No accountability to the group, ever. I've got the feeling that more people are going to get hurt before this rage settles down again.

Karl Rove used "epitaph" the same way on ABC's This Week this morning; but Steele wins today's Bad Grammar Sweepstakes anyway, for rendering the plural of "apparatus" as "apparati". Even the Romans didn't make that mistake.

itstrue on March 21, 2010 at 12:11 PM

Those were my thoughts as well , typically , they were soon crowded with other equally reprehensible epitaphs .

It's unfortunate that these people get so much press. The perception is that they speak for ALL Americans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Until the Media and the Republican Party reprimand them by word or deed, they will continue to get headlines and , for sure, they will continue to believe they do represent us all. They are nothing more than malcontents led by devious sorts.

No matter how deep their involvement in promoting this kind of hate speech, for the GOP it's always an "isolated incident."

See, that's the great thing about "isolated incidents" -- each one can be apologized for individually. If you apologize for each incident brought to your attention, IYAR it can never be held against you or put together with other "isolated incidents" to establish that in fact your party is a nasty bunch of hateful people.

You are much too generous, Steve, in the way you describe the Republican reaction. While calling the specific words "reprehensible," they continue to embrace and enable the toxic brewers -- the teabaggers.

Isolated? Yeah right.

I for one find their candor refreshing.

Thanks for this update, Steve. This is why I'm a liberal. We're not afraid to follow up like this and give a little credit where it's due. Certainly it would have been far better if any of them had at least questioned the manipulated emotions and paranoid propaganda engines that are driving these people more and more rabid. If "reprehensible" is all they can muster, well, that's good for us to know.

I know you're hard at work on all this today, Steve. I hope you are aware of how very much we all appreciate you. My friends and I will raise a beer to you this evening.

Hell. I may raise one right now. Pass the goll durn bill.

They are nothing more than malcontents led by devious sorts.

I don't believe that. The fact that 99.9% of the protesters are white is not coincidence. the fact that the protesters were nowhere to be found during 8 years of deficit-spending by the Bush administration is not coincidence. The fact that the conservative officers I work with tone down their anti-Obama rhetoric when a black officer is present is not coincidence. The fact that many people I know who publicly express the "anti-federal government" slant on HRC are unrepentant racists in private is not coincidence. Believe what you want, but in my mind there is a significant racial/cultural component to the HRC protest across the board.

Pence, Boehner and Steele have a record of lying through their teeth. Why should I believe they find this 'reprehensible', (aside from the fact that Steele himself is what they would call "one of 'those people'")? It's a nice start, but I'll believe it when they raise the issue the next time they are standing in front of a gathering of these racist thugs.

I heard zero acknowledgment or regret for the GOP's complicity in provoking these attacks. The "bad apple" defense is wearing thin.

"Believe what you want, but in my mind there is a significant racial/cultural component to the HRC protest across the board."

I'm not sure, I think they may be incredibly ignorant and or brainwashed. Like the populace in Orwell's 1984. Isn't it incredible that suggesting people are "ignorant and or brainwashed" is a way of softening how they were characterized by DelCapslock

The recent behavior of many Republicans and their fellow-traveling, Faux-populist teabaggers should indeed be their "racial epitaph" if minority voters appreciate it's time to fully disengage from this sordid complex.

fillphil: that's the other thing bad about baggers and Rebaglickins: the seem to speak "for America" and so soil our image abroad. That harms our national security, for real.

Note that Steele specifically denounced the racial slurs & not the homophobic one...

Johnny Canuck: These are not mutually exclusive. Racists are generally ignorant and/or brainwashed. Same as it ever was...

By making it look like the teabaggers are a separate party the Rethugs give themselves plausible deniability. But what is so blatantly obvious is that the teabaggers are merely the KKK without their hoods. They are one of the three legs of the GOP, the, pardon the pun, black sheep under the not-very-big umbrella. They don't represent very many people, but our ever sensationalist and stupid media keep giving them life.

As 'reprehensible' as is their white supremacist ideology, so is the media policy of granting legitimacy to a bunch of racist thugs.

[...] teabaggers are merely the KKK without their hoods. -- rrrk1, @14:48

I don't know... It seems to me that the Tea Hateriots wear their *metaphorical* brown(ing) shirts and their white hoods with pride.

Isolated incidents?

Yes they were isolated in the sense that they only took place anywhere black or gay Democrats appeared

...rendering the plural of "apparatus" as "apparati". Even the Romans didn't make that mistake.

If the Romans had decided Apparatus was second declension then Apparatus would be second declension, not a mistake.