If the Republicans are going to take back the House of Representatives, which is the best way to to derail Barack Obama's socialization of America, targets for removal need to be identified.Here's another one, Collin Peterson. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune explains why:
For a well-known straight shooter, Rep. Collin Peterson has caused a lot of collateral damage this week.
The Detroit Lakes Democrat was forced to apologize Monday for telling a Capitol Hill newspaper that a quarter of his constituents are conspiracy theorists -- a statement that immediately drew ire from political opponents back home.
"Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the Twin Towers down," Peterson told the website Politico, explaining why he does not like to hold town hall-style meetings.
The Minnesota Republican Party pounced on the quote, calling on Peterson to apologize for his "offensive and outrageous comments." Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton said that "Peterson revealed just how out of touch and disconnected he has become in Washington." The organization later announced it was launching an ad campaign against him.
The goof apologized for his comment, but we'll find out next year if his northern Minnesota constituents accept his mea culpa.
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I'm not sure this is a particularly strong stand upon which to be hanging hats.
ReplyDeleteWhile the percentage may not be 25% (though that is the percentage of truthers South Park identified three years ago), the Zogby poll in '07 showed 30% wanted Bush/Cheney impeached over "9/11 coverup" and Scripps-Howard found 20% believed Federal officials were somehow complicit in 9/11. In other words, depending on the makeup of the district (and they did elect a Democrat, so there could be a strong lunatic element) 25% may not be inaccurate.
Even if not, its at best hyperbole with the intent of forcibly making the point: the problem with townhalls is that you tend to get the great unwashed. For ages, the great fear amongst Reform Party of Canada candidates was getting a couple of hardcore anti-Semites showing up at campaign events or public forums expressing to the candidate and the crowd and the media how the candidate is their favourite who "is our best hope to rid our country of the non-white scourge" or some such thing.
Having to publicly distance yourself from 9/11 nutbars is the sort of thing guaranteed to cost you votes on both sides: you would honestly prefer that the truthers would vote for you but not promote you to anybody outside their own little echo chambers, because their support may cost you mainstream votes as well.