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Sen. McCaskill Scolds Rowdy Audience: 'I Don't Understand This Rudeness'
Rachel Slajda | August 11, 2009, 2:45PM
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At a town hall today in Hillsboro, Mo., Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) faced a rambunctious audience.
"I don't understand this rudeness. Do you think you're persuading people when you shout out like that?" she said when people tried to shout her down.
"I don't know what else I can do. If you want me to go home..." she said. An audience member yelled back, "Go home!" but McCaskill continued the meeting.
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ctal
August 11, 2009 3:27 PM
Well done, Senator McCaskill! These rethugs need to be confronted with their rudeness and dispicable lies.
Or, as one TPM reader noted "DM" : we need to tell these sad, ignorant, misguided fools "sir, you are misinformed, you are listening to lies."
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Aunt Sam
August 11, 2009 3:29 PM
I saw this soundbite and thought she handled this confrontation very well. Respectfully and intelligently. A concept all need to subscribe to and encourage.
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cuchulain
August 11, 2009 3:39 PM
She is rewarding their rudeness. She and far too many Dems are rewarding it by running as far away from any real progressive reform -- Single Payer -- as they can. They are trying to ASSURE the wingnuts. They are actually APPEASING them in town hall after town hall. Why? Progressives don't treat them badly. We actually helped get many of them elected. Not one of those wingnuts voted for her. Why are they trying to appease the people who DIDN'T vote for them, and running away from the people who did?
It's crazy. Bat-shit crazy wingnuts are being rewarded. Progressives have been kicked to the curb . . . .
Sheeesh.
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slb
August 11, 2009 3:58 PM in reply to cuchulain
Single payer has never been a politically viable option. That may be regrettable, but it's not the only way to achieve a working system of universal coverage. So can we please stop whining about an option that was never going to fly and try to concentrate on making what is possible actually happen?
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cuchulain
August 11, 2009 4:08 PM in reply to slb
It was an option if it ever got an actual airing in public.
Why? Because it's the most sensible, logical, most efficient and cheapest solution possible.
It's also the easiest to understand. One of the reasons why the current proposals have provoked such bat-shit crazy responses is because HR3200, for example, is very complex, labyrinthine, and tries to please everyone, thus really pleasing no one.
Single Payer is brilliantly simple, brilliantly obvious. It takes very little to explain. If people got the chance to hear about it, they'd choose it in a heartbeat. But when the Dems own powers that be fought against it, it never had a chance.
A concerted backing would have brought to the public's attention, and I guarantee it would have been massively popular.
They didn't do this because private insurance companies and big pharma wouldn't let them.
The GOP is much more in the corporate tank than the Dems. But the Dems are there, too. A truly progressive Congress would have been able to make this work. We don't have a progressive Congress.
It's not whining. It's frustration.
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JoshQuasimoto
August 11, 2009 5:15 PM in reply to cuchulain
I disagree about your opinion of Single payer. Let me just say first that I am a supporter of single payer and saluted the gentlemen who was kicked out of Sen Baucus first committee meeting who stood up and said it was unfair to not have one advocact of single payer in the committee.
However I think by not going the purely (liberal) route of promoting single-payer, Obama and Congress are really trying to find a middle ground first. However even though they have moved to the middle which definetely worries the progressives and many liberals, the GOP and many of their followers still don't see any light for health-care reform. To me this just goes to show you how this group of Americans can be scared or just plain stubborn to take a "my way or the highway" approach. It is them who are looking less and less rational. Sure they may be drowning out much of the rational discourse, and this is of concern to myself, however they are on the news 24/7. And the more I see of them the less and less I see them as having any input on what clearly is a serious issue for America and Americans. Health-care is eating up more of GDP than it has in the past and if statistics bear out then it will continue to gain ground. More Americans are uninsured than before GWB took office let alone what it looked like during Reagan or Clinton. This is a serious issue and those who do not want to have civil discourse and those that allow themselves to be swayed by irrational rumors are losing this fight. They may be front in center of the camera but I do not find TV that informative these days and I think both the left and the right generally think little of the MSM. The more these guys get fired up the more I get fired up, it is feeling like the election all over again. Crazy ass rumors about Obama or about an issue, well get ready for those of who care about America, those of us ready to work for American progress (not Obama necessarily) and those of us who want to take part in our civic duties. Let's get this health-care done, and then let's move on to other issues as well as prosecuting the egregious crimes committed during the GWB Presidency.
Let's go people!
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Donald from Hawaii
August 11, 2009 9:43 PM in reply to cuchulain
"Rewarding their rudeness"? What exactly was Sen. McCaskill supposed to do - flip them all the bird and tell them their wives and mothers are cheap and trashy sluts? What would she accomplish with like-minded confrontation, aside from bringing herself down to their base level?
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Dorn76
August 11, 2009 3:49 PM
Not a huge fan of McCaskill's, but this makes her look pretty darn good. Classy, IMO, a model for how these folks should be handled.
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Steve Gilpatrick
August 11, 2009 4:12 PM
so...watching all this idiocy unfold, the rank stupidity of the process, I now understand the reluctance of many to tread the democratic path.
Enlightened monarchcy or mob rule?
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Mateo123
August 11, 2009 5:00 PM
Good job, Senator --
We need these types of meetings all the time. We need members to respond just like Senator McCaskill responded -- handling these angry folks in a way that is effective.
Now, with respect to single-payer, Democrats are going to have to address the issue at some point. That is, the public option is a way to make sure that insurers have to compete in a meaningful way. But, at some point if the public option isn't delivering rate reductions, we have to look at single payer. I think McCaskill understand this, even if she says she opposes it.
I also think that single-payer would lead to quite a large number of insurance folks losing their jobs.
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lisast
August 11, 2009 5:14 PM
Is it time for these Senators and House members to set up a procedure where ID's are checked before the participants enter the meeting - I've read that people are coming from outside districts to disrupt the meetings - I wonder how much they are being paid. Of course, McCaskill represents an entire state, but should the House members limit participation to those inside their own district to be fair to their own constituents, whose voices should be heard before the outside agitators?
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bilejones
August 11, 2009 5:43 PM
The peasants obviously don't understand that persuading the McCaskill's of the world involves large campaign contributions.
I'm all in favor of every public appearance by the filth in Washington being as raucous and unpleasant as possible.
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traitorjoe
August 11, 2009 5:49 PM
Why are we holding these meetings? So people bused in from outside the area and handed talking points by big pharma and the insurers can disrupt democracy?
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lisast
August 11, 2009 6:03 PM in reply to traitorjoe
That's what I think. There is no way I am taking my mother (in her '70's with bad knees) to a town hall here in Lake County Illinois. I don't care how much she nags me. I just feel it's too dangerous. I emailed our Rep (Mark Kirk) to ask if he was going to ID attendees to make sure there are not outside agitators, but have not heard back. I did not expect to hear back anyway.
I don't care which side you are on - but if the meetings become this unsettling and actually dangerous - Who in their right mind would even want to participate? Did anyone see the Specter town hall this morning? It was not pleasant.
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Demobust
August 12, 2009 3:06 PM
The objections to Congress’ Health Care Bill because:
1. it's NOT free or if you pay no taxes than IT IS FREE!.
2. it will add another 16% of our economy to be driven by government for a approximate total of 48%
3. the Government (NOT you) will decide the cost (read NEED) of your health care
4. mandatory rather then discretionary participation in health plan will be required
5. the desire to control costs will lead to rationing of medical services
6. Code sec 1233 of bill resembles a eugenic construct
7. Violates patient – doctor trust built upon the Hippocratic oath.
OBAMA was right: The proposed Health imitative will run as inefficiently as th US Postal Service!
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