#SnarkWeek: Great Moments in U.S. Political Snark – "The Dining Room Table"

All this week, Indecision will be celebrating Michael Ian Black's new stand-up special and #SnarkWeek with a collection of the snarkiest moments in U.S. political history.

The day is August 18th, 2009. The country has been overtaken by a virulent strain of Town Hall Fever. All across the nation, otherwise polite and mild-mannered citizens are descending like zombies upon congressional district town hall meetings intent on yelling and screaming and disrupting proceedings. All for… some end or other. Who knows? The rationale is somewhat inscrutable.

But tonight, in this small hall in Massachusetts's 4th district, snark history is about to be made. Rachel Brown — a young political devotee of left-wing extremist Lyndon LaRouche — waits in a queue of people, photo of President Obama with a Hitler mustache in hand, for her chance to speak to her representative, outspoken House veteran Barney Frank. The line moves. It moves again. She's getting closer. And closer. Finally, the microphone is just before her quivering lips.

"Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy as Obama has expressly supported this policy?" she manages to get out before Rep. Frank interrupts.

"When you ask me that question, I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question. On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank says. "You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis… Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it."

Wild applause from the room. The internet is in no time resplendent with dining room table jokes. Frank later agrees to an hour-long public conversation with said dining room table.

Be sure to visit cc.com/standup for all your #SnarkWeek needs, and don't miss the premiere of Michael Ian Black: Very Famous Saturday August 6 at 11/10c.

Tags: Barney Frank, House of Representatives, Lyndon Larouche, Massachusetts, Nazis, Rachel Brown, Snark Week

My Sincerest Apologies to the Idiot from Earlier Today

It appears that I owe a huge, huge apology to the crazy lady in the Barney Frank town hall video from earlier today.

I had inaccurately assumed that she was an idiot Fox News-watching Republican. But it turns out that she's an idiot Lyndon LaRouche-reading Democrat. Whoops!

This is so embarrassing for me. I really hate confusing one type of reckless moron who lives outside of reality with another type of reckless moron who lives outside of reality.

Like, one time I saw this guy on the street screaming about how the president lied to us and is conspiring with foreign powers to kill Americans, and I said, "Look at that stupid Truther," and my friend said, "That's not a Truther. That's a Birther," and then I was like, "I am so sorry for making that egregious error." And then I cried.

Tags: Barney Frank, Birthers, Conspiracies, Democrats, Health Care, House of Representatives, Lyndon Larouche, Rachel Brown, Truthers

Barney Frank Addresses All the Dining Room Tables Out There

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a non-neutered Democrat looks like. Get a good look, because you won't see it very often…

When it comes right down to it, idiots deserve to be treated like idiots. I'm not talking about people who are against health care reform. I'm talking about idiots who are against health care reform. You can be opposed to health care reform all you like, but if you choose to be against your own personal paranoid fantasy of "health care reform," then it should be acknowledged that you are bowing out of the conversation and you should be required to leave the grown-up table.

And why — after all the town hall/moron carnivals that we've seen these past few weeks — is this the first time we're seeing a congressperson responding accordingly to the painful nonsense to which we're all being subjected? Why is Barney Frank the only Democratic congressperson with enough courage and sense to realize that these idiots spouting Fox-sponsored LaRouche-sponsored (see update below) bullshit weren't ever gonna vote Democrat in the first place, so you don't have to swear on the Bible that you won't kill their grandparents? Why is he the only one to figure out that just because someone screams twice as loud, they don't deserve three times as much respect?

Also, I like the look on the one lady's face when she realized her invitation onto Hannity's America as a town hall hero wasn't gonna be coming anytime soon.

Update: It appears that apologies are in order.

Tags: Barney Frank, Democrats, House of Representatives, Massachusetts, Rachel Brown