(Steny) Hoyer says he regrets using "un-American" in health care op-ed

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this morning that he regretted using the term "un-American" to describe the actions of opponents of health care legislation in a USA TODAY opinion piece last August. Hoyer, whose name is on the op-ed piece along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, used the term to describe raucous town-hall meetings in which politicians were sometimes shouted down.

Our Gannett Washington bureau colleague Chuck Raasch reports that Hoyer says the phrase "shouldn't have been used."

"That was a very unfortunate phrase to have used," Hoyer told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. "Now, I think there (are) some activites not consistent with civil engagement in a democracy that are occurring. The indication, however, that disagreement and vigorous debate was un-Ameican, to the extent that that was the implication, was not a good phrase, not a good use of language, and was not correct. I regret having read it quickly and approving it."

The phrase has become a rallying point in signs, rhetoric and conversation at Tea Party rallies around the country. Hoyer said he does not think it has fed the opposition, arguing that Americans were already angry and anxious about "mortgage regulatory neglect, the implosion of the financial institutions, extraordinary risk taking, the estrangement of risk from responsiblity."

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/04/hoyer-says-he-regrets-using-un-american-in-health-care-op-ed/1

[Demeter]

1. Down in Flames, Steny, Down in Flames

You can't show your overwhelming contempt for the People in public and expect them to return you to office....especially when they are doing EXACTLY what they are supposed to be able to do in this nation under the Constitution. Even more so, when they are absolutely correct in their conclusions, and you have been trying to pull a fast one for Big Business.

[UndecidedGuy]

2. His only regrets...

Are about how this affects HIS political future. As for anything else... nada.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

3. Well, they are...

... the TeaKlanners that have been showing up to shout down townhall meetings are directly blocking the discourse and exchange of ideas. Put that in your pipe and smoke it if you think Hoyer was going against the constitution in saying it.

[lumpy]

4. agree

v

[Democat]

5. Every single day Republicans politicans call Obama un-American!

Democrats are a bunch of cowards who always apologize. Pathetic.

[The Magistrate]

6. Mr. Hoyer, Sir, Should Know Better Than To Apologize To The America-Hating Tea-Bagging Trash