From The Hill:
A Texas congressman who got into a heated exchange at a town hall meeting this weekend blamed his opponent’s campaign for the incident, but also apologized for his conduct.
Video emerged Monday that shows Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D) and an audience member getting into an argument over his vote for the healthcare reform law. The attendee suggested that the lawmaker stretched the facts about the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the provision.
He shot back, saying “Don’t accuse me of not saying the truth.”
“Unfortunately political operatives associated with my opponent’s campaign tried to turn it into something else — attempting to hijack a ‘congress [sic] on your corner’ event merely to engage in uncivil, cynical videotape baiting tactics,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “The people of Southwest Texas deserve better than that.”
The video first appeared on conservative media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Government” website.
Francisco Canseco (R), Rodriguez’s opponent, released a statement earlier Monday saying that the congressman “has a history of cursing and yelling at people who disagree with him. It shows how much contempt he has for the people of this district and their concerns about the economy, exploding federal deficits, and reckless government growth.”
Read the whole thing here. Do you know what else the citizens of Southwest Texas deserve? A Congressman who can field questions from constituents anxious about the future direction of the country without resorting to threats and violence. Even better would be a Congressman who realizes when he’s made a mistake and doesn’t try to pass the buck onto “political opponents.” As if these “opponents” somehow pulled strings to force him into a violent outburst. If the Democrats can’t ‘man-up’ when they’ve been caught, then this will be an even longer and hotter summer than we feared.
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