Less Than Two Percent Of GOP Members Of Congress Speak Out Against Protester Tactics

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With the specter of universal health care Nazism being raised–with the approval of members of the Republican party–by conservative activists across the country, it’s worth remembering that Republicans tend to go positively bananas whenever they perceive liberals or Democrats to be even tiptoeing toward similar rhetoric.

So in that spirit it’s only fair to point out that, of the 218 Republican members of the House and Senate, about four appear unwilling to silently assent to the shenanigans of the right fringe of their party.

Earlier today, I cited the peculiar cases of Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). As a sponsor of legislation that would have expanded Medicare’s coverage of end-of-life counseling, Isakson described as “crazy” the Palinesque assertion that an end-of-life counseling session amounts to the convening of a death panel. And as a disgruntled official serving the state Palin recently abandoned as governor, Murkowski called the death panel notion ‘offensive.’

Others haven’t gone quite so far. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC)–a conservative health care reform opponent–told a crowd of booing activists to “turn off Glenn Beck.”

And Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), while taking a swipe at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, admitted “I also agree that it would be, in fact, un-American to disrupt a town hall.”

By and large, though, there seem to be two main tracks for members the GOP: 1). Scare protesters silly, then point to the circus they create as a sign of high-functioning Democracy and concerns about the Democratic agenda, or, 2). Look the other way.

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