North Carolina Democratic Representative Bob Etheridge’s muscling of a student who asked whether Etheridge fully supported the Obama agenda has gone viral, and has helped propel Renee Ellmers into a small lead in the polls.
Prior to this incident, I had not heard of Etheridge.
In doing some background research, I came upon this video (embedded below) in which two people from the left-wing blog Firedoglake confronted Etheridge on the steps of The Capitol, and aggressively peppered Etheridge with questions about whether Etheridge would commit to the public option.
Despite repeated questioning, some of which had a mocking tone, Etheridge remained calm. No grabbing, no demands to know who they were, no head locks.
Maybe that was because at the start of the interview the Firedoglake folks said: “We’re friendly to Democrats.”
Etheridge apparently likes to know with whom he is dealing before answering questions, which explains why Etheridge kept pressuring the students in the controversial video with the question “who are you?”
Had the students said “We’re friendly to Democrats … Do you fully support the Obama agenda?”, Etheridge probably would not have lost his cool, or his lead.
Update: Another person who didn’t make nice before asking Etheridge questions, Former Resident Recalls Run-In With Etheridge (h/t Allahpundit)
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Related Post:
Ellmers v. Etheridge
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