Thank you, Barney Frank!

Barney Frank: my hero!

Wimpy Democrats, take note!

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) encountered one of those freaked-out tea-baggers that have been providing such great entertainment (in an appalled, disbelieving kind of way) for all of us following the health care debate.

This tea-bagger threw out one of those confused conflations that are so hopelessly ignorant that they defy rational response. Specifically, the tea-bagger referred to health care reform as a "Nazi program," and wanted to know why Congressman Frank supported it.

Barney Frank, of course, is a Jewish homosexual man and so the tea-bagger's assertion was particularly offensive. But, rather than equivocate and placate as so many other Democrats, including the administration, have been doing, Congressman Frank let her have it.

Here's the vid:



You go, Barney!

There is no debating these people. Their arguments are not rational; they are not based on facts. It's all emotion (mostly fear) and identity politics. As I've stated before, I believe the tea-baggers don't have any real objection to health care reform. I mean, really! Are we to believe that the tea-baggers actually imagine health insurance providers are honest heroes working for the common good?

The tea-baggers are afraid and, through some deft public relations and demagoguery, they have been fooled into directing their fearful anger toward President Obama and Democrats.

Well, Barney Frank is not going to put up with it, apparently.

When I saw the exchange, my heart soared.

President Obama hasn't been near tough enough on the scurrilous behavior, the distortions, and the outright lies that have been perpetrated by monied interests trying to kill real health care reform. I suppose it is good (and certainly, refreshing) to have a president that looks to accommodate. At least to an extent.

But I'm sick of progressives being on the receiving end of ridiculous, self-evidently absurd accusations, delivered by dim-witted nobodies that we have to pretend to respect.

Maybe President Obama feels obliged to maintain a certain decorum, even if it is unreciprocated.

I'm just glad that Barney Frank does not feel so constrained.