The story about a Rutgers professor confronting Rep. Paul Ryan at a Washington, D.C., restaurant over the cost of wine ordered by people at Ryan’s table rightly has been criticized, including by me.
But most of the criticism deals with the professor being a busy-body and snoop, not to mention a hypocrite.
But this statement by “someone close to” Ryan, reprinted in a Byron York article about how the professor will not answer any questions, highlights perhaps a more important point (emphasis mine):
“I would hope that it was just one woman who had a little too much to drink and had a little too much fire in her belly and just decided to cross a line. Paul is more than happy to have a debate and understands that people disagree with him, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that.”
There is a disturbing tendency recently for liberals upset with non-liberal politicians to take the fight to places where the fight should not be taken.
A restaurant is one such place. Are we now to confront politicians with whom we disagree every time they go out to eat?
It would have been bad enough for the professor to be snapping photos and then running to TPM, but the confrontation in the restaurant took it to another level, and could — by her own initial account — have resulted in physical violence between her husband and the guests at Ryan’s table.
We see this with increasing frequency, as SEIU sends protesters to the homes of politicians, immigration activists attempt to intimidate neighbors of an Attorney General, and high level Democrats threaten to punch Republican politicians. The mobs in Wisconsin were the embodiment of this “get in their face” attitude, the fulfillment of Obama’s suggestion during the 2008 that people get in their neighbors’ faces.
One of these days, someone is going to get hurt.
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Post-modern, post-Christian Crusaders.
Get in their face. They bring a knife; you bring a gun. Unfortunately for the national Socialists, Conservatives tend to be armed, concealed carry. In some states, such as Florida, feeling threatened triggers the right to use the arms in self-defense. When this happens, when a Conservative defends himself with a gun in the face of Socialist aggression, Obama and his fellow national Socialists will demand gun control.
Let us remember, first, who started it. Let us make them pay for it.
A lot of people like Christie’s arrogant attitude. When he told someone not too long ago that it’s “none of your business”, I thought he was wrong. He would have been much more effective by answering her question in a civil manner. It’s no more right for a Republican to act that way than a Democrat.
Gaffney was already hurt…
Progressives are not required to “think things through”. Since there is no such thing as “personal responsibility” under the current administration, there is no downside from causing mischief to others. Under some other administration, though, – – – – nah, that’ll never happen.
The self-perception these people have of themselves as tolerant coexisters dovetails beautifully with Obama’s self-image as the “adult in the room.”
LukeHandCool (who loves the Orwellian aroma of that zesty Churchillean chilli of a post title. And who, fearing for his safety, will couple the poor-man’s chili with the cheapest generic beer he can find, lest some indignant economist who frequents upscale restaurants that offer $350 bottles of wine, and who drinks $80 bottles of wine herself, be passing by with her puffy-chested husband … the same economist who would no doubt confront President Obama about his $100-a-serving Wagyu-beef-eating ways. Anyway, Bill, you must share your recipe for this chili. It is to die for (likely in a confrontation with a nutty lefty economist).
Professor, someone has already been hurt.
Kenneth Gladney, a black man who was selling Gasden flags outside a Carnehan town hall meeting in suburban St. Louis, was beaten badly by a bunch of purple shirted SEIU goons, who kicked Gladney as the called him the “N” word. Gladney was hospitalized overnight for his injuries and then released the next day where he was limited to a wheelchair.
That happened two years ago. Not ONE Democrat denounced the beating of Mr. Gladney, not one NAACP member, or any member of the Congressional Black Caucus denounced the beating of Kenneth Gladney, and the judicial system in Missouri (usually far left) has delayed a court date where Mr. Gladney could sue his attackers. Today, Kenneth Gladney finally got a court date.
But don’t expect the MFM to report on this since they didn’t bother reporting the beatdown of a black man at a town hall meeting by union thugs. And don’t expect the MFM to report how a TEA Party attendee had his finger biten off by a radical left wing protester, or how a older woman was shoved to the ground and then kicked by radical left wingers. Instead, the media will show a video of a man who is carrying a rifle near a town hall meeting, making sure to show the man from the neck down so that the audience cannot tell that the man was a black man.
Flash mob robberies are happening all over the nation. All these mobs have one thing in common; but don’t expect the media to tell what that one thing is. Nah, don’t point out that these are ALL black teenagers, the very group that Obamanomics have affected the worst when it comes to unemployment.
Angry, violent actions on the part of the left has become accepted behavior. That should tell you a lot about the people who support Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. and the Democrats.
Isn’t it odd that with the election of the trans-racial president, racial strife and violent actions on the part of the left seems to be escalating?
from my experience, there are very few real liberals left.
the rest who claim the title are wanna-be fascists on level with mussoulini’s action squads or hitler’s storm troopers. some thick irony there.
let’s not go all Godwin here
This is exactly what is wrong with the US. It is an inability of others to mind their own business. Those of us in the South characterize this as being a Yankee. It used to be confined to the northeast, but with our modern world has metastasized to many parts of our country. In fact, the Yankee way of doing things is very much at the heart of what is wrong with our government. This is the real reason that we tried to seek our independence in 1860.
Not slavery? You must teach history.
Pasadena,
This is the problem, people don’t have an idea of their history and accept what they are spoon fed. The best way to look at the issue is to go to the one who started the war, Lincoln. Namely in his first address he indicated the coming conflict had nothing to do with slavery. Then he precipitated the Sumter battle.
Then you can look at a neutral source. Namely Charles Dickens. A reporter and a knowledgable individual, he clearly indicated in his remarks that the war had nothing to do with slavery.
I have read history with T. Harry Williams and have been a professor.
Ann Althouse had a similar point to yours about the left’s latest oppo research tactic , over the weekend.
Quite interesting. Now Republicans will need to watch their backs in restaurants, in the airport, anywhere they might mingle among leftists. It’s almost like they have freedom, liberty, but any identifiable Republican does not.
They are entitled. To confront anyone. Because they care. They’re so tolerant.
Except when some Republican is out at an expensive restaurant spending their own money. With friends.
Oh, the humanity! Spending your money anyway you want, like it’s your birthday! Oh, wait….. Fail. Rutgers should be looking for a new econ prof, IMHO.
From the article, and some of these comments, it does indeed sound like the unhinged left will only continue to get more violent. It is the way of left wing agitators, i.e. community organizers. Alinsky would be so proud.
Post-partisan, post-racial. Transparent. Riiiiiight…..
Once upon a time parents used to spank their children for acting out in public. I can see that the Feinberg’s parents did not raise their children well.
(Once upon a time that was also a reason for shame.)
I liked this comment, left at another blog referring to Ms. Feinberg and the liberal mentality:
“I’m enjoying a bottle of wine that 98 percent of the population cannot prudently afford. I think that stamps me an intellectual with taste. You’re having wine that less than one percent of Americans can afford. Obviously, you’re a class enemy.”
While she’s busy railing at Mr. Ryan for his wine – paid for with HIS OWN MONEY, incidentally – perhaps we can get her to go rail at Nancy Pelosi about the top-shelf alcohol that the TAXPAYERS were forced to purchase for her environmentally-friendly jaunts around the country.
After all, that money – by rights – COULD have been used to help pay for all of those programs that were meant for the downtrodden…..
(The quotation above refers to the fact that Ms. Feinberg’s bottle of wine at this snazzy restaurant cost $80/bottle….)
I hope that this restaurant see’s fit to politely refuse service to Professor Feinberg and her husband in the future. Certainly her 5 minutes of fame will not help the Restaurant’s reputation. I know that I certainly would not want to go to any restaurant that would allow these belligerent activists to bother paying customers about the price of their meals.
[…] New Tone: They will fight in the restaurants, they will fight on the front lawns …. […]
Conservative Self-Defense products rumored to be available in the Legal Insurrection Store in the near future:
We’ve all seen the fake Coca-Cola beer-can covers. Next time you’re enjoying a peaceful meal in a restaurant with a nice bottle of wine, these easy-to-slip-on covers sure do come in handy.
Don’t want your car keyed? Try one of these. Just remember to stop at the light, red or green, so that nosy Legal Insurrection reader in the car behind you doesn’t cause an accident while he’s trying to take a picture of your rear bumper.
Another thought that struck me when reading Byron York’s article and the TPM piece, beyond those already mentioned here, was the hypocrisy of criticizing another patron at the same restaurant for extravagence, while being on vacation no less! Would I be justified the next time I go to McDonald’s in berating another customer for frivolity for not ordering off the Dollar Menu?
Especially nice wine with one’s dinner: $350 a bottle.
Bottled-up whine over someone else’s dinner: priceless.
The restaurant should have comped Ryan for the sour grapes he was served.
My local Philadelphia talk radio station, WPHT1210, morning host, Dom Giordano is scheduled to have Susan Feinberg on at 9:35 a.m. tomorrow. If interested, you can ‘listen live’ on-line.
Sadly the liberals have no shame. They feel their relevancy slipping as more and more people see through their false hopes to the reality of their ideology.
They are desperate and are fighting like cornered rats.
I have long felt that conservatives have been to tolerant to their antics and haven’t recognized the physical threat they represent. THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO WIN.
Unfortunately that means that conservatives have to do things we don’t like to do to keep them from winning and destroying our future.
They are like spoiled children. The longer discipline is withheld, the harder and more physical the response has to be to bring them to their senses.
The first step is to quit respecting the media and calling them out on the lies they attempt to perpetrate and their blatant partisanship.
Next is to refuse to respond to their temper tantrums and name calling or if necessary to respond to turn the spotlight back on them.
We’re fighting for our future here folks and if we don’t start fighting harder with words, we’ll soon have to physically fight them for our lives.
[…] Jacobson has more, he of course keeps it thoughtful and out of the mud. Me, I just like to call stupid […]
I STILL can’t get over the fact that she teaches a course funded by $80,000 from a “THE RICH”but whose philosophy is contrary to her own, stated here:
“Financial success in a vacuum has no meaning,” he says. “You need to define what success means to you. You only go through this life once, so you might as well be the world’s best at whatever you choose to do in work and in life.”
Does she not believe what her benefactor believes?
So she is at the restaurant with her HUSBAND? She has a HUSBAND when so many gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered and sheep lovers are unable to have a HUSBAND? How does she think that makes them feel?
Pretty insensitive for a progressive.
The left has always been this way.
My wife and I rarely discuss politics in places like restaurants, especially in Milwaukee and even more so in Chicago. We believe the possibility of violence from the Left is real and dangerous, based on responses we have seen in other venues (i.e., we were in Madison in February).
Would you rather wake up to find yourself the spitting image of Paul Ryan seated in a restaurant drinking $350 wine with a couple of friends on a chilly night, the three of you draped in $3,500 albino mink stoles … looking up to find a furious Professor Feinberg with her trembling hand on one of your bottles of wine … your other bottle of blood-red wine in the hands of her Professor of Animal-Rights-Activism best friend … OR … would you rather wake up to find yourself with a severe case of Tourette’s Syndrome at a Hamas meeting, unable to get the phrase “Muhammad was a false prophet!!” out of your head?
LukeHandCool (who was inspired by his son and his son’s friends who played the “Would you rather (gross/scary thing) OR (gross/scary thing)” game for over an hour as he drove them home from the waterpark … and who was being driven crazy, but who had to admit the boys’ imaginations were quite something).
Sometimes it’s kind of dangerous to interrupt folks at a restaurant. But of course in Ryan’s case the interrupter was a woman so he couldn’t respond in any physical way. Also, this was in Texas, not D.C. As I recall the man, considerably younger than Henry B., was getting a lot of ridicule for pressing charges and dropped them. Gonzalez was said to put on the gloves and work out on a speed bag every morning until well into his 70’s.
González was referred to as a “communist” in 1986 by a man at Earl Abel’s restaurant, a popular San Antonio eatery. The 70 year-old representative responded by punching him in the face. González was acquitted of assault for this incident.”
http://tinyurl.com/dy25fg