Michael Steele heckles protester at his own town hall meeting (video)

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele went to Howard University the other day, a historically black college, as part of his "Freedom Tour" to promote Republicanism with a new face.

But, like congressmen all around the country who have gotten an earful on health care reform (check out the grilling that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer took in Maryland the other day), Steele was interrupted for a question. Only this time the heat came not from angry conservative "tea party" protesters but from a liberal recent college grad who was tired of waiting for Steele to talk about healthcare.

"My mother died of cancer six months ago because she could only afford three of her six prescription chemotherapy medications,” Amanda Duzak shouted. “Everyone in this room and everyone in this country should have access to good healthcare.” Many in the room applauded. Police escorted her out.

Steele's response was to admonish Duzak for raising her voice. Insisting that he too supported healthcare for all, he raised his fists in imitation of protesters and said, "When people go out to town halls, they go out to the community, and they’re like this. It makes for great TV. You’ll probably make it tonight. Enjoy it.”

-- Johanna Neuman

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Comments

[Bishop]

The Pot doesn't like it when the heat gets pulled off the Kettle and put onto him... what do you expect from the whitest black man in America?
At least Colin Powell had honor and dignity enough to know when to hit the silk.

[MIchelle Fox]

Isn;t it amazing. All the right wingers who go out to these town halls and scream and shout and bring guns and spew lies and hatred ("Obama is Hitler"; "Obama is a Socialist/Communist"; "Obaman is a Fascist" - apparently most of them don't have enough education to understand that communism and fascism are at the opposite end of the political spectrum), and none of these people get escorted out/arrested, but a woman who is upset because her mom died, like millions of others, de to lack of access to health care,a nd she gets kicked out. I love the double standard!!!!

[Tristan]

If that woman thinks that her mother would have magically gotten her other three prescriptions for free from the government, I think she would be mistaken. Health care cannot be free. It must have a value imposed upon it that the free market sets. The world is not composed of infinite resources that can adequately take care of 300 million people equally. I wonder if Michael Steele had asked her if she offered to get another job to help her mother pay for those three extra medications what she would have said? If it were my mother, I would have bankrupted myself if necessary to get her treatment. The value of her life would have been worth any cost to me. However, even as a conservative, I believe what Michael Steele did was wrong. That woman deserved compassion and a response to her misery at her mother's passing that could have presented free market principles in the best light. With free market competition, insurers would be forced to do a better job and make less profit and maybe her mother's coverage would have been better so she would have paid less for her medications. It's sad that he missed an opportunity to show a little compassion and to muse on how conservative principles maybe could have helped her mother more.