Cornyn Booed, Called Traitor And "The Problem" At Tea Party Protest (VIDEO)

This Independence Day weekend marked the second incarnation of the fabled Tea Party movement, protesting the government's growing involvement in economic matters. And, just like the first go-around, the July 4 protests saw an elected Republican official, undoubtedly hoping to harness some of that the popular unrest, taking the stage to a chorus of boos.

This time the recipient of the unforgiving welcome was Sen. John Cornyn. The crowd yelled at Cornyn, called him a traitor and shouted that he was "the problem" when he took the stage in Austin.

WATCH:

Cornyn was not the first to face such a reception. South Carolina Rep. Gresham Barrett also was booed mercilessly for his support of the bank bailout during the initial Tea Party protests in April.

For Cornyn, the offense seemed to be more than his support for the initial Wall Street bailout, but also his failure to cast a vote on the economic stimulus package. Though, to be fair, it appears as if the crowd pretty much despised any figure from elected office. Here is how the AP described the scene:

Republican Gov. Rick Perry told the Austin crowd that Washington needed to hear them "loud and clear" on a message of cutting spending and taxation and shrinking the government.

Perry also drew some boos on his support of toll roads to alleviate traffic congestion.

Many in the crowd of hundreds in Austin wore stickers that read, "I resist Socialism."

In Lufkin, organizers urged the crowd to call President Barack Obama and tell him "we are not happy, and we are working to make Texas free from his legislation."

Members of the crowd booed as the names of Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were read.

"I believe that President Obama was elected because we failed to lead," Ted Cruz, former solicitor general of Texas, told the Lufkin crowd. "But I also believe that his greatest legacy as president will be that he inspired a new generation of conservatives to rise up and defend our liberty."

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Comments

[Dave Farley]

01:36 AM on 07/08/2009

Obama has stayed consistent with his message. You can say what you want about the Democratic Congress, and which GOP candidate will be the nominee in 2012, but Obama has kept his message simple. He is our president and has healthcare, energy reform, job losses, and 10 percent of the stimulus money has actually been used. I know of a project in a nearby town in upstate, NY, and it has created 25 or so jobs, to work on a bridge. I think too many people are being impatient with the Obama's stimulus. Besides, what is socialist about creating jobs? Isn't Obama's recovery plan similar to earlier presidents like Truman and Eisenhower? These tea party protesters are idiots of the worst kind. They simply don't want to pay any taxes at all and that just doesn't work as an American citizen.

[GreatTruthsSeeker]

08:44 AM on 07/07/2009

People can debate precepts, cause/effect relationships, and use great inductive and deductive reasoning in the processing of different points of view. The bottom line in this story is that when John Cornyn gets booed for an extended length of time, it's great for the world and even better for Texas. Somewhere, Ann Richards' heart is going pitter patter for the right reason.

[wdw505]

09:02 AM on 07/07/2009

the only thing her heart is doing is rotting

[GreatTruthsSeeker]

09:04 AM on 07/07/2009

I guess you didn't know her. Hope you find some peace.

[Veri]

08:31 AM on 07/07/2009

Here we go, a telling line. "...fabled Tea Party movement, protesting the government's growing involvement in economic matters."

Geniuses, given the historical (and continued) abuses perpetrated by corporations, who is supposed to regulate corporate excesses? You? Well, if you as the consumer are supposed to regulate corporations, you have failed in such an epic fashion that they will talking about your stupidity a thousand years from now. Now, I believe the government is supposed to regulate to prevent the disasters such as this.

Ron Paul is a loon when it comes to advocating complete deregulation and unrestricted capitalism. You think this is bad? Here is a little history lesson repeated all over the world, today, provided by Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_massacre

This is your future under corporate power.

The crisis today is but a drop in the bucket of Ron Paul's lassiez-fai(lure)re capitalism. If I recall, and most everyone else in this world, the financial crisis was caused by unregulated financial instruments fraudulently foisted upon investors. Investors such as pension funds (no retirement now, suckers), local governments (buh, bye police officers, join unemployment), and the world at large (100 million and counting pushed into poverty).

[wdw505]

09:04 AM on 07/07/2009

now who has been pushed into poverty.......no one i know....

[confidance government]

03:04 PM on 07/07/2009

Are you considering also the negative effect of the legislation that business draft in order to drive out their competitors, more effectively exploit their employees or raise barriers to entry.

I thought not; pre-preemptive regulation causes more harm to the economy and consumer, than enforcing laws against theft and fraud and upholding property rights and corporate liability.

[realpolitic]

08:01 AM on 07/07/2009

When conservatives speak about "rising up and defending our liberty" are they really just talking about defending our "class divide?" To me, that is exactly wat they are talking about, which is defending the status quo.

[wdw505]

09:07 AM on 07/07/2009

no i don't wish to pay for the lazy and indigent with my taxes. nor see the government spend like drunken sailors on social programs (the give me programs)

[realpolitic]

02:52 PM on 07/07/2009

Yes, until you have a sickness or perhaps work in a job will you get some long term illness. Then you become the "they."

[Rhetticent]

11:02 AM on 07/07/2009

Real, I don't think so. As a conservative, I believe that our system should be designed to support excellence, no matter what the source. Bill Gates and Microsoft is emblematic of a conservative, free market system, in which innovation and better ideas can succeed and, yes, shake up the status quo.

[Lemmy]

12:05 PM on 07/07/2009

And your beliefs go against everything liberals stand for. The word "earned" is replaced with "entitled"

[rfshunt]

12:35 PM on 07/07/2009

Bill Gates and Microsoft couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag. If they didn't engage in predatory monopoly practices they would be selling pencils on the streets of Seattle.

[Chip W]

07:15 AM on 07/07/2009

I'm pretty high on freedom and liberty myself. Against government intrusion into individuals lives. Stuff like that. But I don't feel especially threatened.
Would someone from the fearful right explain to me which of our freedoms are being threatened, and how they're being threatened. Please don't use platitudes or mention Thomas Jefferson.

[Rhetticent]

11:11 AM on 07/07/2009

Chip, I'm probably a lot older than you, so my perspective is bound to be different. It may just be perception, but the intrusion has been slow and pervasive. The change over my lifetime ranges from the amounts taken from my check each week to the loss of swimming pools and fireworks. You'd have to time travel back to the '50's and '60's to get a sense of it. I've just always resented Washington telling me what I could and could not do, I dislike the nanny state that tells me what's good and not good for me. It continues in small ways, such as the provision in the Waxman-Markey act that gives authority for local building codes to the Feds: you will even have to upgrade to green techology before you can sell your house. Rather than Jefferson, I'd direct you to d'Toqueville.

[Daughter2]

12:44 PM on 07/07/2009

When ordinary citizens talk about "government intrusion" it is totally different than when the Republicans, as a Party, speak of it. The Party's desire is what we have just witnessed happen with the Bush administration, it's ultimate dream: no regulatory agencies. If they had their way we would have an ongoing situation with unsafe products and foods and junk we've seen coming in from China, no employee safety regulations or food testing -- all of the standards which we have brought up over the years, kicked to the curb. When The Party speaks it is to its corporate cronies and "base" and they GET it. It's like their own little secret. Because when speaking to ordinary citizens, The Party insinuates another meaning altogether, something the masses can identify with. I believe in the common wealth. I believe morally a government has to help its citizens who cannot help themselves. I believe public education, public safety, the GI bill and others were what made the '50s great because it gave opportunity for people to lift themselves into a different social level than they came from and created a healthy middle class. The big wail I hear about how great the '50s were is from Conservatives. But they fail to understand it was many factors, including government-sponsored programs, that gave it its foundation.

[Chip W]

02:32 AM on 07/08/2009

Rhetticent, You're probably not a lot older than I am, but I've only being paying attention to political stuff for ten years or so. I, too, have cringed at the amount that's taxed out of my paycheck. I'm vehemently opposed to government protecting us from ourselves, and I think the question "Whose choice is it to make - the individual's or the government's?" is primary, and should (but doesn't) have top priority in the mind of all legislators. I'm not clear of whether I'm conservative or liberal, but there's no one towards the right these days who's saying anything, at least that I see (except David Brooks).

What I see towards the right is what I said initially - knee-jerk, unthinking opposition based on some vague principals. Single payer health care is currently the biggest relevant issue. I ask "Given that the health care system in this country really ain't very good, what might work best?" Single payer sure looks worth looking into, not even because it should be a role of government, but because government might do the insurance part of health care better and cheaper.

The knee-jerkers feel threatened, and won't even ask "What will work?" Their freedoms are being threatened, and I fail to see, in specifics, what it is they're talking about. "Freedom, liberty, the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson" seems like muddled platitudes to me. They're just boulders in the road. (I don't know d'Toqueville).
Thanks for your response.

[CroatianCritter]

12:36 AM on 07/07/2009

You know why EVERYONE gets booed. Because these tea parties were created by the Ron Paul movement and his 'Campaign For Liberty.' All elected officials are FAIR GAME because they have betrayed the American people. FOX NEWS took the idea of the tea parties and tried to spin it into a right wing protest angering many Ron Paul supporters. None of these guys will ever get the support of these people. I find it funny that the uncreative Republicans, who have led us down the road to fascism, have jumped into the game. Can you guys please go back into the holes you came out of and disappear from sight? Thanks!

[onepotatotwopotato]

12:32 AM on 07/07/2009

Orlando "Tea Party" pics at links below. If links don't work moderators please delete this post.

http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/photos/photo08/63/2c/72168f8bee97__1246726192000.jpeg
http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/photos/photo35/fa/85/ea077ea6cee2__1246725825000.jpeg
http://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/photos/photo14/ba/d5/8167d45aa136__1246726155000.jpeg

[Judiciousness]

12:31 AM on 07/07/2009

Those of the Nazi right and left were wrong about the REVOLUTIONARY element in the Tea Party. You want change, well the masses will deliver.

[Jaxy]

12:22 AM on 07/07/2009

As I recall, after bad-mouthing the proposed Stimulus Bill with all the bluster of Texas, Little Johnnie Cornyn snuck off to Noo Yawk ... to meet with donors ... instead of sticking around to cast his vote.

Yup, that's home-spun Rethug values for ya. Me and my wallet first!

[Tommygun264]

12:20 AM on 07/07/2009

Notice the um, "portly" fellow with the Reagan tee-shirt? Protesting deficit spending and taxes while wearing a picture or Reagan. That's like wearing a fur coat to a PETA rally.

[primercord]

11:33 PM on 07/06/2009

Michelle Bachmann next............

[disgusted48]

11:11 PM on 07/06/2009

ha, ha, ha, ha, heh, heh, heh.

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

11:02 PM on 07/06/2009

Remember what happened to the scientist that built the Frankinstein Monster? He was distroyed by the evil he invented. Let that be a lesson to the Republican party of no as they spead their hate.

[Kram]

11:15 PM on 07/06/2009

Great analogy. They created these rabid dogs, now that the reap what they have sown

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

11:39 PM on 07/06/2009

That was a doctor not a scientist. Huge differeance he was a MD not a Phd.

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

10:59 PM on 07/06/2009

And They shall eat their own.

[roudy]

10:42 PM on 07/06/2009

They got one thing right. He is a traitor to his country.