GOP lawmakers denounce racial slurs by Tea Party Protesters

Like the block bully who menaces the neighborhood with his vicious dog and then is suddenly contrite when it tears apart one of the neighborhood kids, members of the Republican leadership denounced racial slurs screamed by anti-healthcare-reform protesters at a handful of black members of Congress, including one of the most respected living leaders of the 60s civil rights movement, Rep. John Lewis.

Another black congressman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was actually spat upon by anti-healthcare-reform protesters brought to the nation's capitol by Tea Party organizers. Capitol police reportedly detained the attacker but Cleaver declined to press charges. And gay, white congressman, Rep. Barney Frank, was the reported subject of a number of anti-gay insults, including "homo," and "faggot."

Some Republicans seemed genuinely outraged: Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, who marched alongside Lewis during the civil rights march in Selma in the 60s said the slurs were contemptible. Pence: "I denounce it in the strongest terms."

But Eric Cantor, whose job as GOP House whip makes it his task to keep GOP congressmen from crossing party lines to support heatlh-care reform, remained combative.

Cantor did offer a bland dismissal of the slurs: "Nobody condones that at all."

But when House Democratic Caucus chair John Larson suggested the events indicated that "everybody ought to ratchet back just a little bit," Cantor snapped back:

"You know what it is time for? It's time to listen to the American people, and that is the stunning thing about this."

It doesn't take a big stretch of imagination to figure out which Americans Cantor is listening to: faces contorted with rage, screaming racist epithets, spittle dripping down their chins -- that's the voice of America Cantor is tuned into.

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