As Sarah briefly mentioned in GMN, a Republican congressman from Georgia named Paul Broun failed to condemn a town hall questioner who asked “Who is going to shoot President Obama?” The joke reportedly “got a big laugh” from those in attendance.
Today, Broun finally condemned the “joke”:
“Tuesday night at a town hall meeting in Oglethorpe County, Georgia an elderly man asked the abhorrent question, “Who’s going to shoot Obama?” I was stunned by the question and chose not to dignify it with a response; therefore, at that moment I moved on to the next person with a question.
After the event, my office took action with the appropriate authorities. I deeply regret that this incident happened at all. Furthermore, I condemn all statements—made in sincerity or jest—that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the President of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Good to see that it took nearly twenty-four hours of public outrage for him to finally develop a sense of morality.
There are a lot more than twenty-four hours between today and Tuesday night.
Just a quick programming note. I moved to Portland from that house district about a year ago. This isn’t even close to the nuttiest thing he’s done. The local alt weekly paper (it’s the Merc for Athens, GA) runs a regular section entitled “Paul Broun’s Krazy Korner”. http://www.flagpole.com
The worst part is, he only got elected once state Republicans gerrymandered house districts to dilute the Democratic power in Athens. We’d reliably sent Democrats to DC for ages before that.