Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said on MSNBC today that he agreed with House Minority Leader John Boehner that health care is the biggest threat the country has ever seen.
"It is in fact socialism," Tancredo said. "It is a true, very scary threat."
He couldn't, however, answer when anchor David Shuster asked if Medicare and the Veterans Administration, both single payer programs, pose a similar threat.
Tancredo left midway soon after when Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas took a shot at Tancredo for avoiding military service during the Vietnam War. (Tancredo deferred being drafted after college because he was being treated for depression.)
"I'm a veteran," Moulitsas said when Tancredo claimed veterans would prefer vouchers over VA care. "I did not get a deferment because I was too depressed to fight in the war I supported in Vietnam."
"That's a cheap rotten stupid thing to say," Tancredo said. When Moulitsas didn't apologize, he took off his microphone and left.
Late Update: The original version of this post reported that former Rep. Tancredo (R) said that it was a appropriate for Tea Party protestors to carry Holocaust imagery to dramatize the horrors of health care reform. He did answer "you bet" to the question of whether it was appropriate to use such images. However, further review of the videotape makes us think this answer was a product of confusion in the crosstalk between Shuster and Tancredo. The latter seems to have thought he was answering a different question. And understood in this context, "you bet" meant he thought it was inappropriate. Tancredo said plenty of crazy stuff in the interview. But we don't think he meant to defend the use of such imagery.

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atlliberal
November 6, 2009 7:15 PM
Good for Markos! It's about time people stood up to these bullies and called out their hateful rhetoric.
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Martskers
November 6, 2009 7:30 PM
Right on, Markos!
Can someone---anyone---please explain to me why lunatics like Tancredo are given air time?
Even Tom Delay seems to have disappeared, at least from cable. But not idiots like Tom T.
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tamiasmin
November 6, 2009 11:38 PM in reply to Martskers
"Even Tom Delay seems to have disappeared..."
Not completely. He did a brief bit recently on Dancing With the Stars before bowing out with two injured feet. And last week he was the celebrity expert (?) on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I hope for everyone's sake that he sticks to those venues, because against all expectations, he wasn't a hateful jerk on either program.
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punkdavid
November 6, 2009 7:57 PM
DAMN!!! That's gonna leave a mark(os).
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eratosthenes8
November 6, 2009 8:19 PM
It's amazing how right wingnuts can dish it out -- but they never seem able to take it.
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Observerinvancouver
November 6, 2009 10:12 PM in reply to eratosthenes8
Especially when "it" is the truth. Heh, heh, heh.
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bluesplashy
November 6, 2009 8:21 PM
Yeah! I am so glad someone pushed back. And, Marts, the reason the lunatics get airtime is because they say these wacky things and MSM thinks that is why people watch their shows.
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Walter Mitty
November 6, 2009 9:32 PM in reply to bluesplashy
See Grayson, Alan.
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Kuyleh
November 6, 2009 10:02 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
Yeah, it's kind of sad that people telling the truth is that insane, eh?
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Walter Mitty
November 6, 2009 10:38 PM in reply to Kuyleh
He says wacky things to get on the MSM shows - he'd probably admit as much. it's part of the game.
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nkd
November 7, 2009 7:20 AM in reply to Walter Mitty
He quotes number of people who die each because they don't have health insurance. I never saw that number disputed. If it is true, how is that wacky?
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Walter Mitty
November 7, 2009 2:26 PM in reply to nkd
He's said a lot more than that - the whole knuckle-dragging neanderthals, the Dick Cheney had blood dripping off his teeth, the lobbyist whore statement on the radio interview...
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dougom
November 6, 2009 8:28 PM
Classic bully behavior; he is perfectly happy (as are all the Republican chickenhawks) to dish it out, but he can't face it. Hell, he can't even stay there and try to get his own licks in; he simply retires from the field like the coward he is.
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tweakyd
November 6, 2009 8:49 PM
video please
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Tom Betz
November 6, 2009 9:16 PM
Video here.
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 9:16 PM
So he supports people comparing Obama to Hitler because some protestors somewhere during the Bush presidency did something similar? That's it? "Neener-neener, you did it first!" That's his response? What an asshole.
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JHG
November 6, 2009 9:22 PM
Kudos, Markos. You and Rep. Grayson are setting the right example.
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Walter Mitty
November 6, 2009 9:42 PM
Classic Chicken hawk. Right up to the "I wish I could have served but the doctors wouldn't let me" quote he's given in the past. Also it's worth mentioning that he got the medical deferment only after running out of school deferments.
And everybodies favorite Dick Cheney spawn is a deferment baby, as Dick got his final deferment because his wife was pregnant with Liz.
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DaddyD
November 6, 2009 9:58 PM
It's OK to call Obama all kinds of names, from "Hitler" to "Baby Killer", and equate a plan to providing healthcare for millions with genocide, but don't mention Tancredo's Vietnam cowardice... noooooo, because THAT'S "a cheap rotten stupid thing to say".
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mistersnrub
November 6, 2009 10:41 PM
What an absolute coward.
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wake up
November 6, 2009 10:42 PM
Tancredo: "Everything is fair game. . . Waaah! Waaah!"
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xargaw
November 6, 2009 11:04 PM
Trancredo has his hate and certainty imbedded in solid concrete where his brains belong. He is no longer capable of thinking.
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cwnidog
November 6, 2009 11:07 PM
That's OK Tom, being a chickenhawk is a cheap, rotten, stupid thing to do.
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ralpho
November 6, 2009 11:45 PM
I've been reading The Onion this evening, with the result that all of this Tea Party nonsense sounds like self-satire.
Nevertheless, this is very similar to what was done to Bill Clinton. Unfortunately it may succeed once again in its basic objective, which is to get a Republican president elected after either 4 or 8 years. They excel at long-term destruction of, essentially, anything and everything if they think it might somehow advance their goals. Needless to say, it's a dangerous way to do politics.
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Dave Adams
November 7, 2009 2:46 AM
So really, Tancredo chickened out again.
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Icon
November 7, 2009 6:52 AM
"He couldn't, however, answer when anchor David Shuster asked if Medicare and the Veterans Administration, both single payer programs, pose a similar threat."
Of course he can't, because he knows his position is intellectually bankrupt and inconsistent. But he's willing to say it as frequently as possible, praying each time that the audience is too stupid to ask the obvious questions that make his position logically indefensible.
Moulitsas should not have said what he did, though. It was counterproductive and comes off as insensitive to people with mental health issues.
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johnbwarner
November 7, 2009 9:30 AM in reply to Icon
Your third graph wins "Snark of the Year" award. Keep em coming.
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TheOwl
November 7, 2009 11:41 AM
Wow, Rachael, you buried your admission of your flat-out error in reporting in a whole bunch of bull.
You misquoted your "target", BIG TIME!
Sloppy, sloppy journalism.
Makes any points that you wanted to make truly suspect.
Typical inadequate, self-serving apology.
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bushwhacked
November 7, 2009 12:42 PM
Sending young men and women off to war when you evade the same is so far below chicken-shit that is simply repugnant. Hiding behind wealth and privilege is the mark of a true republican. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Bachmann and the rest of the chick shit GOP gutless cowards need to get off the war cheerleaders bench and put up some of their own machismo.
As the esteemed senator Franken from Minnesota quoted, "What's that smell?"
Any clues here Rush? Feffen cowardly Chicken-hawks.
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