Yesterday, Travis County supporters of Congressman Lloyd Doggett held a celebration to thank Congressman Doggett for the passage of the health care reform bill. Predictably, protesters showed up, as they did last summer when a mob of Teabaggers disrupted Congressman Doggett's appearance at a local grocery store. What caught my attention was the reporting the local NBC affiliate, KXAN did on an incident that occurred before the event, and the different take reported in the Austin Statesman. I was not there, so I'm hoping some of you Travis County Kossacks can shed more light on what happened.
By now, we are all familiar with the ubiquitous protestors who seem obsessed with stopping health care reform. Congressman Lloyd Doggett had a mob of Teabaggers show up at a local grocery store last summer, organized by a Teabagger activist who doesn't live in his district. On that occasion, they carried signs depicting Congresman Doggett with devil horns, and another with his name on a tombstone. Yesterday, when his Travis County supporters held a celebration to thank the congressman for the passage of health care reform, about 40 protesters along with a group of Doggett supporters gathered in front of the AFL-CIO hall in downtown Austin.
In the pictures in the Austin Statesman, you can see supporters holding signs that say "Thank You", "Congressman Doggett, You Rock!", and "Thanks Congressman Doggett for Healthcare Reform" and the like. Protesters can also be seen holding signs we've all seen before- "Come and Take It!" , "Obama Bin Lyin', and and another that says "Pray for Obama, Psalms 109:8 Let his days be few and brief.". There is a new one, however- a full-color photograph of Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a gun crosshair on her face. The crosshair looks just like the ones Sarah Palin put on a map of targeted elected officials when she urged opponents of reform to "RELOAD!".
As I said, I wasn't there. The headline in the Austin Statesman read "Doggett Supporters "Celebrate Health Care Overhaul. Conservative Activists Protest at Congressman's Event". According to the Statesman, "some heated exchanges broke out between critics and supporters before the event" , but Travis County Deputy Constables said "nothing major had occurred".
Now switch to the reporting by Jacqueline Ingles on KXAN, the local NBC affiliate - "Confrontation at Health Care Rally- Supporters and Opponents Clash at Event".
A fight broke out at a pep rally held by Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) between supporters and protestors.
KXAN
A woman holding an Organize America sign was manhandled by a Constable doing security
Austin Statesman
If you watch the video - link here- it appears that a Constable overreacted- "manhandled" looks to me like a good description of what happened. You see a petite woman holding an Organize America sign standing near a protester. A Constable grabs by the arms, and wrestles her away from the protesters, as several more supporters come forward. The woman is quoted as saying she was within her rights to get close to the protesters. One of the protesters claims the woman attacked them. Another Doggett supporter interviewed said that one of the protesters flags blew away, and when she tried to return it, the protester asked her "not to touch her".
I don't believe for a minute that the Teabaggers were attacked, but of course they are quick to claim they are the victims. They also claimed they were attacked at a Doggett Town Hall last summer in Bastrop, Texas, when some of the Teabaggers who disrupted the grocery store event in Austin followed Congressman Doggett to nearby Bastrop, and tried to disrupt it by shouting. They later claimed in the local paper that they were shoved by a "gang of thugs" , referring apparently to the fact that they couldn't push their way up to the front of the Town Hall because some of our larger Democrats were standing in front of them. We're hoping to hold a thank you celebration of our own here, but we are giving some careful thought as to the location, since these people are bound to try to crash the party.
Unfortunately, some in the media seem determined to find a balance and report that both sides are equally at fault. We need to continue to take the high ground, document with video, and above all, stay safe out there!
UPDATE: Now a blogger on the Texas GOP Votes website has this headline: "Lloyd Doggett Hides Inside While Tea Partiers and Union Democratic Astroturf Scuffle Outside". I'll let them explain their version of the incident with the security guard:
One AFL-CIO woman, holding an "Organizing For America" sign, came over to taunt the Tea Partiers, yelling "social justice, social justice!" An officer mistook her for a Tea Partier (he must not have known that "Organizing For America" is an Obama cult group) that had crossed the line into the forbidden AFL-CIO territory, and the two of them start wrestling as the woman's husband came over and hit the officer in the neck.
Apparently they are now claiming that she was provoking them ( social justice is a taunt?), and that an officer was hit by one of "Obama cult group". Funny that the Deputy Constable spokesman said "nothing major occurred", and that video of the incident only shows a man with a camera who walks over while the Deputy is wrestling the woman holding an Obama sign who walked over to the Teabaggers side.