http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/elizabeth-warren-heckler_n_1073755.html
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/elizabeth-warren-heckler_n_1073755.html>
*Ryan Grim <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-grim>
*<mailto:[email protected]>
Elizabeth Warren Heckled By Tea Party Supporter
First Posted: 11/3/11 12:26 PM ETUpdated: 11/3/11 12:42 PM ET
BROCKTON, Mass. -- Moments into a speech before volunteers here
Wednesday evening, Elizabeth Warren was interrupted by a Tea Party
supporter who hurled a gender-based epithet at the Senate candidate. The
man, who said he'd been unemployed since February 2010, objected to
Warren's expressed affiliation with the frustrations of Occupy Wall
Street, and argued that the Tea Party has been protesting Wall Street
excess for longer than the nascent global movement.
The crowd tried to shout the man down, but Warren told her supporters to
let him speak. "No, no, it's alright. Let me say two things," she said.
"I'm very sorry that you've been out of work. I'm also very sorry that
the recent jobs bill that would've brought 22,000 jobs to Massachusetts
did not pass in the Senate."
Speaking in a packed VFW hall, Warren went on to address his question
about her association with Occupy Wall Street. "I've been protesting
what's been going on on Wall Street for a very long time," she said, but
added that the movement has its own independent agenda and will proceed
along its own course.
"Yeah, so has the Tea Party," the man said, before losing his cool.
"Well, if you're the intellectual creator of that so-called party," he
said, "you're a socialist whore. I don't want anything to do with you."
The crowd shouted him down as he added that Warren's "boss," presumably
referring to the president, was "foreign-born." He then attempted to
storm out through a side door. Finding it locked, he retreated out the
back of the VFW hall instead.
In April, before President Obama released his "long form" birth
certificate, 43 percent
<http://www.gallup.com/poll/147530/Obama-Birth-Certificate-Convinces-Not-Skeptics.aspx>
of Republicans said that the president was either definitely or probably
born in a foreign country, according to a Gallup survey. After he
released the birth certificate, the number dropped, but still held at
roughly one in four when polled in May.
Warren took the challenge in stride. "So, we are here to do work, and I
think we have a reminder that we have a lot of work to do," she said as
the heckler struggled with the door.
The Tea Party was founded on a sense that something ephemeral had been
stolen by someone, and that a movement was needed to "take the country
back." Occupy Wall Street is now getting media attention the Tea Party
believes is rightfully theirs, and the perceived slight can only inflame
the movement's sense of victimhood. They didn't just lose the country as
they knew it. Now they've lost coverage on CNN, too.
After the event, Warren reflected on the man's outburst, which she said
was her first such encounter. "I actually felt sorry for the guy. I
really genuinely did. He's been out of work now for a year and a half.
And bless his heart, I mean, he thought somehow it would help to come
here and yell names," she told HuffPost.
The assault stuck with Warren, and she continued to think about it
throughout the night. Hours later, she she said she wasn't upset with
the man himself, but rather with those who attempt to channel his anger
in a malevolent direction. "I was thinking more about the heckler. I'm
not angry with him, but he didn't come up with the idea that his biggest
problem was Occupy Wall Street. There's someone else pre-packaging that
poison -- and that's who makes me angry," she said.
Check out the slideshow below for more on Elizabeth Warren's career:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/elizabeth-warren-heckler_n_1073755.html
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News
From Underground" newsgroup. If you'd like to donate to News From Underground,
please visit http://markcrispinmiller.com/donate - we appreciate your ongoing support.
Ways to unsubscribe, 1) send a blank email to [email protected]. PLEASE NOTE: you must unsubscribe using the SAME email with which you subscribed; 2) go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page.
For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com
