Congressman Anthony Wiener Stomps on Lungren

No one silences Anthony Weiner
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0210/No_One_Silences_Anthony_Weiner.html
02/25/10

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif) was nothing if not brave Wednesday—attempting what many have tried but few have accomplished: silencing Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

Weiner took to the House floor to accuse the GOP of being “a wholly owned subsidiary of an insurance industry,” and Lungren wasn’t having any of it. The result was a bizarre back-and-forth exchange that led to three consecutive Weiner speeches.

“Oh, you really don’t want to go there, Mr. Lungren,” Weiner said tauntingly after the Republican asked that his words be struck from the record.

On the eve of President Barack Obama’s health care summit, Weiner opened his speech by accusing Republicans of having the “chutzpah” to be complete obstructionists.

“You know, you’ve gotta love these Republicans. I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of an insurance industry—that’s the fact,” Weiner said, voiced raised.

As the bizarre scene unfolds, whispers repeating the “subsidiary” line can be heard in the C-SPAN footage, which is when Lundgren (R-Calif.) rose to ask that Weiner’s statement be struck from the record.

Weiner then paced the floor, returned to the podium and agreed to retract his statement—only to enter replacement words in the record.

“Every single Republican I’ve ever met in my entire life is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry!” Weiner yelled even louder than before.

The entire exchange lasted about five minutes, demonstrating a true sign of bipartisanship leading into a health care reform summit meant to bring both parties together.

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Anthony Weiner: Republicans “Owned” by The Insurance Industry
By Roy Edroso, Wednesday, Feb. 24 2010 @ 8:58PM
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/02/anthony_weiner_3.php

We were just talking about the mouth on this guy. Today in Congress Anthony Weiner gets called by the refs twice for offensive language.

In a discussion of the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, apparently speaking on Rep. Peter DeFazio’s (D.-OR) time, Weiner laughs and says, “You know, you gotta love these Republicans. You guys have chutzpah.”

Then Weiner yells that the Republican Party “are a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.” Some discussion is heard offscreen, which we thought was Republicans asking for the Yiddish to be translated, but after Weiner bounces around yelling for a while and then repeats the subsidiary charge, Rep. Daniel Lundgren (R.-CA) demands he withdraw the remarks.

Weiner says, “You really don’t want to go here, Mr. Lundgren,” The chair sends Weiner to the penalty box.

This all happens in the first minute. Much fumf-fumf as Weiner prepares to revise his remarks. Then, around 2:30, he does so: “Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry!” Then he gets challenged and has to revise again.

Weiner, who maintains a combative Arnold Stang tone throughout, gets a lot of bravos for this at YouTube. He’s turning into New York’s Congressional performance artist.