Neil MacDonald is on a roll lately...
(CBC)That sort of language, of course, just gets the Tea Partiers angrier. And when they are angry, they frighten the Republican elite, including, apparently, Frum's boss at AEI.
With their confusingly contradictory demands, their goon tactics, and their ability to organize and channel spluttering visceral fury, they are truly the loose cannon of American politics, endangering any conservative politician who doesn't either ride with them or hide from them.
During the health-care vote last week, Tea Partiers behaved like the snarling white mobs that lined the streets of Selma, Alabama, 46 years ago.
They surrounded representatives John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver, both civil rights legends from that era, as they entered the House to vote.
One protester spat in Lewis's face. Another called Cleaver a "******." This, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in 2010.
When Barney Frank, the openly gay congressman from Massachusetts, arrived on the Hill with his partner, he was mobbed, too. "******," someone yelled.
Inside the House, one protester made it into the public gallery where he began screaming curses and insults. Republican lawmakers applauded him, even as police struggled to haul him away.
There were several explanations put forward for the behaviour, but Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck, a Tea Party hero, provided the richest one: The Democratic lawmakers, he said, had deliberately provoked the crowd by walking around the grounds of the legislature in which they serve.