Boom, Headshot, Part 4

Here's another video for you of a man being removed from a campaign event.



So what was this man's crime?  Being a known Democrat at a public event for GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

One man attending was John Taylor, a member of the Louisa County Democratic Committee and a backer of Rick Waugh, Cantor's Democratic opponent. Taylor and two others were asked to leave the coffee shop. County police then subdued Taylor, as can be seen in a video shot by his son with his cell phone.

Events like these raise questions about the decorum of the man who would be in such a powerful position on Capitol Hill. Violence at campaign stops, regardless of who may be at fault, is not something commonplace in Virginia politics.

If Cantor says he will meet and debate voters, he should have the nerve to do so. He should not hide behind his party's gatekeepers and a rural police department.

The coffee shop owner asked all Democrats to leave his establishment before Cantor showed up, and the assembled identified Taylor as a member of the County Democratic Committee.   Taylor and his son were asked to leave.  Taylor refused.  You saw the result.  But since in America in 2010 we have to assume that any Democrat at a Republican campaign appearance is a danger, they have to be forcibly restrained and removed whenever they are identified.

Was the coffee shop owner within his rights to kick Taylor out?  Yes.  Was it the right thing to do in a society that holds free speech sacred?

You tell me. Matt Osborne has a brilliant post at C&L on this whole mess.

[UPDATE]  Digby wins the Internets.

What do you do with people like this? They just spent the last year and a half disrupting Townhall meetings like a bunch of crazed jackals. (They're still doing it.) Yet if anyone (even the press) asks unpleasant questions or holds a sign they disapprove of at one of their political events, they either have them restrained by private security or arrested by the police. And that's if their supporters don't assault them first and then demand an apology from the protester.

This goes way beyond hypocrisy. This is a group of people who truly believe that constitutional protections only apply to them --- in their minds, the founders wrote it to protect good conservative Christian people from the traitors who would challenge their supremacy. 

The rest of us have rights subject to approval of the Tea-ranny of the Majority.