Security Guards Remove Retired Cop from Town Hall Meeting

August 30th, 2009 3:16 PM

As the anger over the nation's movement towards socialism grows, Democrats' patience with town hall meeting protesters is clearly wearing thin.

On Saturday, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) instructed security guards to escort what ended up being a retired New York City patrolman out of a fiery Manchester gathering.

New Hampshire's Union Leader reported Sunday (video embedded below the fold, h/t Ed Morrissey):

Removed from the forum because he continually interrupted Shea-Porter and others in Manchester was Carl Tomanelli of Londonderry, who objected when her staff passed out health care stickers before the event began.

He claimed the stickers would be used to alert Shea-Porter to supporters. Later he told the New Hampshire Sunday News: "I'm not in favor of any health care reform Carol Shea-Porter is not a part of. If they want me to support it, I have to have the same health care as (U.S. Sen.) Orrin Hatch, or Ted Kennedy or (Christopher) Dodd."

He also objected that people outside Shea-Porter's Congressional district were in the room, including a young man who could not vote. He noted there were out-of-state license plates around the building. "It's a joke," Tomanelli said.

As the Nashua Telegraph reported, Shea-Porter has been speaking quite ill of such protesters:

She chose what sounded like a derogatory reference to opponents, some of whom sprang from the Tea Party rallies across the country against Obama's fiscal agenda.

"They walked around me and they're videotaping me," Shea-Porter said at the Spring Street home of an Obama supporter, according to Foster's Daily Democrat.

"I chose to go there because I wanted to talk to them about what this is really about. And I ask you to do that also. Don't be so divided and so put off that you don't feel like you can have a conversation."

That's fine and admirable, but this is when it got a little unhinged.

"Find those tea-baggers who don't like the idea of this and talk to them."

Nice...a United States Congresswoman using a sexual reference to castigate citizens.

Ironically, Shea-Porter used to be a town hall protester herself:

She stalked then-congressman Jeb Bradley at town hall-style meetings the 1st District Republican incumbent held throughout his district.

Shea-Porter's passion against the Iraq war and other Bush policies made her a darling of the liberal throng that came out to rock the house in September 2006 and deliver her a stunning blowout victory over former House Democratic Leader Jim Craig, of Manchester.

Will Obama-loving media share this event with the public or the delicious irony of a former town hall protester now speaking ill of such folk?