Megan Kelly just had Rep. Brady on her show on Fox and made that same point. There is already a law that prohibits threatening any public official. The only difference in his bill, by his own representation was the symbols. Kelly was a little too PC because she did not ask him directly if this was targeted at Sarah Palin but she did mention both Palin quote and 2004 Democrat use of a symbol directly.Purplehood wrote:Why just public officials? Lets legislate away threatening language or symbols against anyone. Wait a minute, isn't that already illegal?baldeagle wrote:This is even worse.Imagine the irony of this. Rep. Giffords just read the First Amendment on the floor of the House three or four days ago, and now this bozo wants to pass an unconstitutional law that restricts speech. We have got to get the people of this country to understand that they cannot elect idiots like this. They are destroying this country.Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Brady, a Democrat from Philadelphia, told CNN that he also plans to take legislative action. He will introduce a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to use language or symbols that could be seen as threatening or violent against a federal official, including a member of Congress.
To say that Rep. was less than eloquent and completely unpersuasive is the most charitable representation of the matter than I can offer.