Rep. Jackie Speier becomes Congress' newest member, is booed by Republicans (they walk out)

[Kadie]

Speier becomes Congress' newest member, is booed by Republicans
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Thursday, April 10, 2008


(04-10) 11:45 PDT Washington - --

Newly elected Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough was sworn into Congress this morning and delivered a fiery speech criticizing President Bush's Iraq policy that led some Republicans to boo and walk out of the House chamber.

Speier, who won a special election Tuesday to fill the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, was always an outspoken lawmaker in her years as a San Mateo County supervisor, state Assemblywoman and state Senator. She served notice Thursday that she plans be just as aggressive as a member of the House.

"The process to bring the troops home must begin immediately," Speier told fellow lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. "The president wants to stay the course and a man who wants to replace him suggests we could be in Iraq for 100 years. But Madam Speaker, history will not judge us kindly if we sacrifice four generations of Americans because of the folly of one."

While Democrats applauded, Republicans began a chorus of low boos. Some Republicans who had congratulated her just moments before, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), walked out of the hall in protest.

Speier's 13-year-old daughter, who was watching from the House gallery, asked, "Why are they booing my mom?"


more..
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/10/BARA103CHG.DTL&tsp=1




House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, administers the House oath to Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., left, during a mock swearing in on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Apr. 10, 2008. Associated Press photo by Brendan Hoffman

[Richard Steele]

1. Classy folks, those Repubs. nm

[bdamomma]

2. it is time for those democrats to punch these repigs out.

Good for her for speaking the truth. and we all know how the repigs do not like the truth.

[acmavm]

3. The part that pisses me off is the damn republicans keep coming

BACK. Why don't they just stay gone??

[DU9598]

25. Why don't we lock the door ... you leave, you are done for the day

[FatDave]

43. Because democrats always let them off the hook

Let bygones be bygones. It's time to heal. All that crap.

What we should do is expose every evil fucking move of these evil fucking bastards until people are too embarrassed to even admit that their uncle Bob once voted for a republican sheriff.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. I hope those fine upstanding GOP Reps. walked out

So they could get to the nearest College/Young Republicans meeting and get those kids to enlist...

Nah. :eyes:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Spier is generally...

one of the good ones. I have a lot of respect for her.

She has a very interesting history -- she was with the CA Congressman when he was killed at the airfield outside at Jonestown after visiting Jim Jones. It was a real hairy story of survival.



(11-13) 04:00 PDT SAN MATEO -- On Wednesday it will be 20 years since Jackie Speier was badly wounded in the Port Kaituma airstrip ambush that preceded the Jonestown massacre.

"I was very lucky," she said.

"I was shot five times and still have two bullets in my body. I could easily have been shot dead."

The newly elected state senator from San Mateo's Eighth District spent more than an hour detailing her feelings about the Guyana tragedy, in which five people were murdered in an ambush and Jim Jones and 912 followers died in a mass suicide.

Speier, 48, was then the legal aide to Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-San Mateo, who had won congressional authorization to investigate charges that the Jonestown colony had become a jungle concentration camp ruled by a madman, and that the lives of nearly a thousand Americans were in danger.

...snip


"I was lying on the ground by one of the plane's wheels, pretending to be dead," Speier said. "I had my head on my arm, but I was one of the people they targeted, and was shot five times in the shoulder and right side by guys with rifles and shotguns.

"I went into shock. My mind rejected what had happened. Once I comprehended it I thought, `I never expected to die at such an early age -- I was 28 at the time. Would my parents ever know?' And then I waited for the lights to go out."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/11/13/PN93318.DTL

[Hepburn]

19. I like her and I respect her!

So disgusting that the Pubbie were less than courteous to her.

[Kadie]

52. It is an amazing story.

I remember watching the news about that whole ordeal. Amazing what she, and others, went through.

[Cooley Hurd]

57. Jesus! She was shot FIVE times!

:wow:

I remember I was 13, in front of the TV waiting for SNL to start when they broke in with the story about Jonestown. Odd how one remembers such things.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. Good for Speier

Glad to see her moving up. She's been a local fixture in politics for a LONG time. She gained "fame" after being shot five times in Jonestown, Guyana. She was working for Rep. Leo Ryan, who was murdered there.

Now she holds his seat.

[checks-n-balances]

17. Someone who's been shot 5 times isn't afraid of some booing

No wonder she spoke out at the very beginning - she's not afraid. Let's hope some others already there are going to follow suit.

[NanceGreggs]

7. If Darrell Issa walked out on me ...

... I would consider it an honour.

[jkshaw]

14. Agree! And in spades!

[Hepburn]

20. Amen, Nance!

:applause:

[Raster]

49. Thank you Nance! As would I. Issa is a bushlicker of the first degree.

HATED HIM!

[Kadie]

53. Absolutely.

She did good.

[MidwestTransplant]

Is she swearing on the Koran like Obama did? Inquiring Freepers want to know.

[Mountainman]

10. No it was a copy of the Communist Manifesto per freepers.

[DCKit]

13. I heard it was a Science Textbook.

God I wish we had another 538 like her.

I wonder how Nancy Disaster took the slap - or if she even noticed her collaboration was being criticized.

[EFerrari]

8. Kick their @sses, Jackie!

:applause::applause::applause:

[gratuitous]

9. "Why are they booing my mom?"

Because, youngster, unlike all those macho Republican men, Jackie Speier has actually come under fire and doesn't think other people need to be shot at. These Republican men are true believers in the High Church of Redemptive Violence, and they think that might - and only might - makes right. Your mom is telling them something different, and their tiny little brains can't process the data.

So they boo.

[PetraPooh]

27. Yeah, I'm surprised to hear that a 13 yo of a woman in Congress would ask

such an ignorant question. As much as I like what Mrs. Spiers said and that she po'd the repubs, I wonder how her daughter could be so uninformed about politics and her mothers role therein.

[gratuitous]

33. I'm not surprised a 13-year-old would ask the question

So I explained it, just like I would to any 13-year-old.

Sorry if it went over your head, though. I'll type slower next time in deference to a presumed inability to read quickly.

[PetraPooh]

34. Wow, what a snotty response. I understood your post, you didn't understand mine. I'll type slower.

I don't understand a congresswoman having an ignorant 13 year old. How could a responsible parent not take the time to educate her Freshman daughter about what to expect and what politics are and how it will be presented and what she will have to bear regarding her mother's choice of profession and her mother's choice to be strong and inflammatory (both of which I think are great) in the ways her mother presents her POVs.

I could understand the daughter's ignorance if she was say under the age of ten, but 13?!?!? That seems pretty irresponsible to me.

[NYC Liberal]

39. Why do you think she asked out of ignorance?

It could easily be rhetorical. As in, "Why are they booing my mom - she's RIGHT!" It's the same as when I ask how anyone can still support this moron of a president. I know the answer and I'm not asking out of ignorance. I'm making a point.

[PetraPooh]

44. Ah! Good point. I hope that is in fact the case. Excellent concept.

[hisownpetard]

58. What a ridiculous accusation. Go away.

[kestrel91316]

47. Does it make you feel good to refer to the 13-yr-old daughter of our

newest Dem Congressional Representative as "ignorant"?

I thought so. Welcome to DU, and enjoy your stay.

[PetraPooh]

50. No, actually it bothered me a great deal that it was possible for an obviously

valuable woman to the party would perhaps have let her daughter down in such a way. However it was pointed out that the "why" question may have been rhetorical, and I quickly embraced that possibility. However, it is very discouraging that you are apparently illiterate and/or choose to imagine that no democratic representative can be questioned in the least. How republican of you.

[speedoo]

11. Anyone who gets Issa to walk out has to be fantastic! nt

[babylonsister]

12. Rec'd for our newest Dem rep. Give 'em hell, Jackie! nt

[cyclezealot]

15. Did it ever occur to these GOP jerks.

They are not just booing Rep . Speier. But, the thousands of citizens who elected. I am sure she fully represents the vast majority who elected. So to hell with them. Boo right back at ya.

[burythehatchet]

16. If only they would stay the hell OUT

[struggle4progress]

18. Them Publicans is a sorry lot

[formercia]

21. This is just what we need

someone who hasn't been corrupted yet. Give 'em HELL Jackie!!!

[grace0418]

22. If she was booed by Republicans, then her speech was a success.

Good for her!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. As soon as I read this I thought...

...Jackie let them know, loud and clear, she was in the house! :D Good on her...

[SpiralHawk]

32. I'd bet a sack of doughnuts most of the walkouts are CHICKENHAWK republicon

The many chickehawk republicons have notoriously THIN skins.

[Q3JR4]

35. My sentiments exactly.

Standing ovation:

:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:

to Rep. Jackie Speier.

Q3JR4
Is there any way we can get her elected speaker? :P

[Courtesy Flush]

24. Dems have been too meek for too long!

It pisses me off that the mid-term elections yielded no one with real guts. We need people who are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore!!!

[midnight]

26. Wow. Last summer I saw a PBS documentary of this

horrible Jim Jones event. Very sad. She spoke in the documentary. She worked for a wonderful Peninsula. Rep. Leo Ryan. When they were ambushed investigating the complaints surronding Jim Jones. Now she aims to bring the troops home. I'm so very excited for California.

[mitchtv]

28. Wow one of my favorite Dems , now in congress

Go Jackie.I remember Jonestown and Leo Ryan

[annabanana]

29. Nancy gavelled them and told them to "take their conversations

OFF the floor". (It was a GOOD speech)

[bobthedrummer]

30. Just like NAZIS in the Weimar did...

[pacalo]

31. Keep walking, 'thugs. Keep walking.

[Wizard777]

36. She told Congress what's going on in the real world.

Unfortunately Congress doesn't care what we think and doesn't want to hear that shit.

[Ikonoklast]

37. I hope she's able to piss them off every single time she speaks

Their hatred and intolerance of the truth eats them up from the inside like a bitter acid.

Truth is like a blinding light on these puke cockroaches; shine it on them and they scurry to the corners like vermin.

[grace0418]

38. And that the stupid mf-ers leave for good.

We don't want them anyway.

[Forkboy]

40. Someone should lock the doors behind them and keep them out.

:)

[SalmonChantedEvening]

41. They boo because she's right. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

42. Wait until some of them get "booed" out of their House seats in November! Well done Congresswoman!

:applause:

[kestrel91316]

45. Why are they booing her mom?? BECAUSE THEY ARE PIGS.

[ellie]

46. I was going to say fuckheads

but pigs will do, too.

[kestrel91316]

48. Fuckheads also works.

[Canuckistanian]

51. Is this a bad thing?

I LIKE to see Repukelicans walk out of Congress on their own accord.

Can we do more to encourage this?

[ArbustoBuster]

54. We can encourage it in November!

:D

[hisownpetard]

55. Darrell Issa improved the quality of the audience tenfold, by walking out.

He is repulsive.
Did anyone catch him on Bill Mahr, about a month ago, being cool in his black leather jacket and black shoe-polish dyed hair?

[MagickMuffin]

56. After the walkout Congress should have opened the floor for an important vote

Kinda like the republicons used to do when they were in control.

:applause: to our newest member of Congress Rep. Jackie Speier. :yourock:

I'm so sorry your daughter had to witness such childish behavior from grown men and women(?).

Does anyone have a list of who walked out?.?.?

[MethuenProgressive]

59. Great thread, many thanks for posting this!

:kick:

[lumberjack_jeff]

60. It's a good start.

Perhaps is we can get the rest of congress to make similar speeches, Issa and his ilk won't come back.

[eppur_se_muova]

61. Three points to note ...

1. She has a brain.

2. She has a voice.

3. She is not reluctant to use either of them.

NO WONDER THEY RAN AWAY!!