Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn Give Press Conference on Threats to Democrats

An incredibly silly (or stupid) reporter asks Hoyer if his members felt as if they were at risk....are they really concerned about these threats.
Hoyer's reaction was....(adding what he couldn't say) YES... Damn right we are at risk. Damn right i'm scared and concerned. We have had some serious incidents over the last 48-72 hours. These jackasses are crazy. This is domestic terrorism. (looking perplexed by the stupidity of the question, lol).

Republicans have been mostly silent regarding the threats to members of Congress and their families. John Boehner gave a lame, half assed statement on Radio Rwanda (Faux News) yesterday... after he gave justification for the fanaticism on the Right. But Boehner is about 2 years too late. This stuff has been going on since 2008. Not a word from the Republican leadership. He decided to finally say something now because he felt pushed into a corner.

Boehner himself is part of the problem. He is one of the members of Congress who has been getting his Tea Party followers riled up with dangerous language.

John Boehner to Democratic Congressman Steve Driehaus of Ohio (regarding his Healthcare vote):

Driehaus “may be a dead man” and “can’t go home to the west side of Cincinnati” because “the Catholics will run him out of town.”

This is on top of the nonsense from Sarah Palin and others.

But this man is the House Minority Leader. Where is the responsibility?

Republican Terrorists Threaten Congressman Clyburn

Republican Tea Party Terrorists send noose to Congressman James Clyburn. Incident appears to be part of a wave of terrorism and intimidation aimed at members of Congress who supported Healthcare reform.

Clyburn throws support to Obama

From CNN.com:

House whip Clyburn throws support to Obama

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House majority whip, the top ranking African-American in Congress, said Tuesday he will support Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race.


Rep. James Clyburn had been neutral in the race between the front-running Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady.

"I believe the nomination of Senator Obama is our Party's best chance for victory in November, and our nation's best hope for much needed change," Clyburn said in a statement. "Senator Obama brings a new vision for our future and new voters to our cause. He has created levels of energy and excitement that I have not witnessed since the 1960's."

Rest of article at link above.

Clyburn has been on of the unsung heroes during this election cycle. Him dropping comments in the press and standing his ground on them at times when needed helped a great deal. We all knew he wouldn't let his daughter and grandson down..LOL

I loved Clyburn on Morning Joe. I loved that he brought up Dean's 50 State Strategy, but when he talked about it in terms of his historial perspective, having gone to jail during the Civil Righrs Movement, and that Obama's victory in Iowa convinced him that it was possible to see dreams come to fruition, I was moved.

James Clyburn -Trying to be the Canary in the Mine

Hat tip: Marc Ambinder

James Clyburn, speaking to National Journal:

Later, he explains why he's neutral, sounding very non-neutral and very much of a mind to believe that if the "graybeards" -- the superdelegates -- take the nomination away from Barack Obama, there'll be consequences.

. I'm very proud of what Barack Obama's done. When I sat in those jails back in the '60s in South Carolina -- dreaming about growing up, dreaming about becoming an adult, dreaming about having children and grandchildren -- I now have a 14-year-old grandson, and he is very proud of Barack Obama. I'm not going to sit down and watch anybody marginalize my grandson's dreams and aspirations. And I'm not going to see anybody go out and just absolutely nullify the energy and time that my daughter, youngest daughter, put into Barack Obama's race. This young lady started going to his office at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, every day after work, staying there to 11, 12 o'clock at night, and apologized to me for having to follow her heart for fear that it might disrupt my neutrality.

So when I look at this daughter of mine, I look at this grandson of mine, and see the pride in their faces -- I'm just not going to have anybody just tamping that down, and so that's why I spoke up. Because I'm going home on weekends, and I go to these college campuses, as I will be this weekend -- I'm going to Voorhees [College] and do the commencement there, I'm going to Tuskegee in Alabama and do commencement there on Sunday -- these young people are looking at me, saying, are you graybeards in this party getting ready to go into some room somewhere and nullify everything we did in this campaign?

Clyburn's trying to be the canary in the mine.

James Clyburn Speaks Plain Truths About the Clintons and the Black Community

From the NYTimes.com

April 24, 2008, 7:53 pm
Black Leader in House Denounces Bill Clinton’s Remarks
By Mark Leibovich

The third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and one of the country’s most influential African-American leaders sharply criticized former President Bill Clinton this afternoon for what he called Mr. Clinton’s “bizarre” conduct during the Democratic primary campaign.

Representative James E. Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate from South Carolina who is the Democratic whip in the House, said that “black people are incensed over all of this,” referring to statements that Mr. Clinton had made in the course of the heated race between his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Clinton was widely criticized by black leaders after he equated the eventual victory of Mr. Obama in South Carolina in January to that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1988 – a parallel that many took as an attempt to diminish Mr. Obama’s success in the campaign. In a radio interview in Philadelphia on Monday, Mr. Clinton defended his remarks and said the Obama campaign had “played the race card on me” by making an issue of those comments.

In an interview with The New York Times late Thursday, Mr. Clyburn said Mr. Clinton’s conduct in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him. “When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Mr. Clyburn said. “I think black folks feel strongly that that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation.”

Mr. Clyburn added that there appeared to be an almost “unanimous” view among African-Americans that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were “committed to doing everything they possibly can to damage Obama to a point that he could never win.”

Rest of article at link above.

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From Reuters.com

April 24th, 2008
Top House Democrat denounces Clinton campaign tactics
Posted by: Richard Cowan



WASHINGTON - “Scurrilous” and “disingenuous” were among the words a top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives used on Thursday to describe Hillary Clinton’s campaign tactics in her bid to defeat Barack Obama for their party’s presidential nomination.

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, of South Carolina and the highest ranking black in Congress, also said he has heard speculation that Clinton is staying in the race only to try to derail Obama and pave the way for her to make another White House run in 2012.

“I heard something, the first time yesterday (in South Carolina), and I heard it on the (House) floor today, which is telling me there are African Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that she can’t win this. But they’re hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win” in November, Clyburn told Reuters in an interview.

Obama holds a sizable lead in delegates won in state-nominating contests which could be hard for her to overcome.

The purported theory is that an Obama defeat in November against Republican presidential candidate John McCain would let Clinton make another presidential bid in four years, Clyburn said.

Rest of article at link above.

Some folks want him to endorse Obama. I don't know....maybe he should.