The peasants are revolting, Nancy Pelosi fears:
Asked at a news conference on Capitol Hill about the possibility of anti-government rhetoric leading to violence, Pelosi, D-Calif., started to choke up as she recalled violent episodes that took place in San Francisco.
“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw — I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco, this kind of — of rhetoric was very frightening and it gave — it created a climate in which we — violence took place,” Pelosi said.
“And so I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made, understanding that — that some of the people — the ears it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume,” she said.
“But, again, our country is great because people can say what they think and they believe, but I also think that they have to take responsibility for any incitement that they may cause.”
In 1978, former San Francisco city supervisor Dan White shot and killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk inside City Hall. Milk was at the time the highest-ranking openly gay elected official in the country.
Pelosi knew both Moscone and Milk as a Democratic Party activist in the 1970s.
Last year, at an unveiling ceremony for a bust of Milk at a jobs center, Pelosi recalled the day Milk was remembered following his death.
“I kept thinking of Harvey on that day — on that day that we eulogized him,” Pelosi said, according to a clip posted to YouTube. “He was a great guy, and he led a wonderful life. And he was comfortable in his own skin, and he wanted everyone else to be so as well.”
Glenn Reynolds on what’s missing from Nancy’s outburst:
Nancy Pelosi chokes up about political violence, doesn’t mention Ken Gladney. “Pelosi wants to silence opposition since she cannot outargue it, and her implied reference to the murders of Milk and Moscone as somehow comparable to political opposition to the Obama administration is flat-out despicable.” And desperate.
UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes:
It should be noted that Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were not killed by a constituent angry about unfair laws they passed.
They were assassinated by a fellow Democrat politician- city councilman Dan White, who resigned complaining about his low government salary and angry that Moscone wouldn’t reappoint him to his hack job.
If Pelosi is afraid … she must be afraid of her own fellow politicians in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
Or maybe hotheads from the SEIU. Which would make sense, given the Gladney experience. . . .
Heh, indeed.™
Update: Fausta adds, “Well, just when you thing you’ve seen it all, Nancy springs a leak:”
Now that she’s brought up incitement, The Blog Prof remembers when Nancy called the protesters Nazis and “AstroTurf”, and called the CIA liars. She ought to curb her enthusiasm.
Is Pelosi Cracking From The Pressure? We’ll find out in time for the Oscar nominations.
How bad is the left’s rhetoric getting? Even their allies in the Associated Press(!) are warning them to dial the rhetoric back a notch or twenty.
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