MAN THREATENING PELOSI ARRESTED…. As awful as it is to see right-wing activists respond to policy debates with violence and threats, it is encouraging that law enforcement officials are taking the dangerous tactics seriously. The threats directed at Speaker Pelosi sound especially scary.
Law enforcement officials tell The Associated Press the FBI has arrested a northern California man for making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over health care reform.
Charges against the alleged caller have yet to be disclosed.
Several federal officials say the man made dozens of calls to Pelosi’s homes in California and Washington, as well as to her husband’s business office, reciting her home address and saying if she wanted to see it again, she would not support the health care overhaul bill that was recently enacted.
The would-be attacker reportedly spoke directly to the Speaker on at least one occasion.
The Speaker, it’s worth noting, is one of several top U.S. officials to receive Secret Service protection.
The arrest appears to be the second associated with right-wing opposition to the Affordable Care Act, following yesterday’s reports of a Washington man who was taken into custody after threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
In related news, reader H.S. alerted me to a report in Tennessee in which someone claiming to be a Tea Party activist sent Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) an email that read in part, “If our tea parties had hoods, we would burn your ass on a cross on the White House lawn.” The incident has been reported to the Capitol Police and the FBI office in Memphis.
It’s a good thing conservatives spent a year whipping confused, right-wing activists into a frenzy with overheated, apocalyptic, and deceptive rhetoric about health care reform, isn’t it?
