LaRouche Youth Movement Takes Lead At Barney Frank Town Hall Meeting

August 20, 2009 (LPAC)-- The August 18 Dartmouth, MA townhall meeting was a different kind of event for Barney, whose constituents usually love him and kiss his butt (yuck!) The crowd was almost entirely against Barney (except for the SEIU and other "special guests" seated in the front rows)—and they were angry. There was a lot of bickering in the back of the room during the event, chatter in reaction to Barney, lots of tension, quiet name-calling as people reacted to each other.

The moderator opened the event saying that we should look to FDR and a New Deal. Social Security was the staple of the New Deal, so Healthcare Reform should be the staple of Obama's. People immediately booed. During Barney's initial speech, there was a lot of silent tension building in the room. He opened by talking about the Death Panels "disinformation" being spread, and lied that "end of life consultation" was just optional—he didn't talk about IMAC board at all, though he signed onto Neal's letter. At one point during the speech, a LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) organizer interjected, "What about the bail-outs, Barney?!" The tension in the room then broke, and the crowd joined in, "Yeah, what about them?!"

The event as a whole went 45 minutes over time because Barney spent about 10 minutes babbling and giving non-answers to most questions. He just couldn't help himself. The crowd was angry, and once the Q&A started, they really went after him. One man yelled out, "You're a liar, Barney!"

Barney asked, "Who said that? What did I lie about?"

"The TARP bill!"

At one point, a lady asked, "If the people here representing your constituency don't like the bill, would you vote for it anyway?"

He said that he probably would. As the anger built in the room, with people cutting off his answers, Barney broke in, "Look, this isn't conversation! This is supposed to be conversation!"

At one point, another LYM organizer positioned himself in the aisle at the front, holding up the back of the LaRouchePAC webcast pamphlet for Barney to see. Barney kept staring at it, twitching. Moderator came over trying to eject the organizer from the room, "Get out of here!"

Another organizer, sitting nearby, turned to him and said, "YOU get out of here", and the surrounded crowd backed him up, "Yeah! YOU get out of here." The moderator scurried off, and didn't bother us again.

Barney was asked questions about auditing the Fed, was challenged with his own lies about Fannie and Freddie being sound lending institutions, etc., and responded to each with his best Alan Greenspan impression of mindless babbling, taking refuge in how bad the Bush Administration was. One man kept yelling out, "Oh yeah! Just blame Bush again!"

LYM organizers got in two questions: First, Aaron Yule asked (roughly), "I came up to you in the halls of Congress with the Homeowners' and Bank Protection Act, and you went into a babbling fit." Aaron contrasted the HBPA with Barney's working with Goldman Sachs on the bail-out. Aaron then said, "We have to put the whole banking system and Fed through bankruptcy reorganization." The entire room cheered. "If you don't go with LaRouche's Hamiltonian bankruptcy reorganization policy, you're going to screw the American people again."

Barney went into incoherent babble about how the bail-out money is now flowing back into the economy. Then, "Oh, and one more thing about LaRouche, he and his people are the ones getting out the picture of Obama as Hitler, this is outrageous!"

A bit later, RachelBrown asked: "The administration is missing something about these town hall meetings..." She referenced the growing unemployment, state bankruptcies, etc., and said, "That's the real context of this meeting, it's an austerity policy to cut healthcare to save the budget for the bail-out. This healthcare reform is the Hitler T4 program, it's a Nazi policy. LaRouche has already defeated the bill, it's on its way out, so why do you support a Nazi policy?"

People were trying to shut her up the whole time, but others defended her right to ask a question. Barney completely reacted in a slobbering rage. "What planet do you spend most of your time on?" It's ludicrous! He said that trying to talk to her would be like "talking to a dining room table," and dismissed the question.

On the way out, much of the opposition to Obama (Republicans) were getting freaked out at our signs, more so after the event than before. Perhaps Barney's babbling frightened off some people. The head of the Republican Party for the town asked us to tone it down, because we were making the town look bad (Ha!). However, many others took extras on the way out, and the press was having a field day getting interviews, videos and photographs.

We caught Barney scurrying out of the event. A LYM organizer walked with him to his car, "You know, Barney, I don't know if you'll survive these town hall meetings...."

Barney curtly answered "Well, you saw how I answered that Hitler question, right?" Right, Barney.

It's probably the worst time Ol' Barney's had since in the 1980s "Hot Bottom" scandal.

All in all, we had a great time.