Threats Overwhelm Political Discourse as Health Care Anger Boils Up

Bricks through windows. A severed gas line. Faxes depicting nooses. A coffin outside a home. Suspicious white powder sent to a congressional office.

Scenes from an apocalyptic Hollywood movie? No, just another day in the increasingly ugly political climate of post-health care reform America.

Simmering resentment by opponents of the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama this week has led to a growing number of reports of vandalism and intimidation against Democratic members of Congress and their families.

Federal and local authorities are investigating threats and other incidents at congressional offices across the country. At least 10 senators and representatives were afforded increased security protection, a measure usually only given to party leaders, The Los Angeles Times reported.

After switching his support and voting for the bill, Rep. Bart Stupak reported receiving phone messages threatening his life. The pro-life Michigan Democrat had initially opposed the measure over concerns about abortion funding.

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill," a woman said in one voicemail. A male caller said, "I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die."

Stupak said he also received a number of threatening faxes, including one with a picture of a gallows with a noose attached.

In Colorado, Rep. Betsy Markey and her staff also received death threats. A man called the Democrat's congressional office on Saturday and told an assistant that "[you] better hope I don't run into you in a dark alley with a knife, a club or a gun," MSNBC reported.

On Tuesday the FBI began investigating a severed gas line at the home of Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello's brother, just days after his address was posted online by state Tea Party members. Angry over the Democrat's vote for health care reform bill, they posted the address of Bo Perriello and encouraged other activists to "stop by," Charlottesville's Daily Progress reported.

Apparently the activists intended to post the congressman's home address but published his brother's by mistake. Tea party officials said they did not encourage or condone attacks on Perriello's family or property.

"We wanted people to go by and talk to their congressman," Danville, Va., Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman told reporters.

Bricks, some with anti-Obama messages scrawled on them, were hurled through windows of at least four Democratic offices in Kansas, New York, and Arizona.

Again, the incidents appeared to have been fueled by anger on the Internet. A blogger in Alabama Friday railed against members of Congress for taking up the bill and encouraged opponents to "break their windows," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) had a coffin placed in front of his house, a spokesman said Wednesday night. The coffin was from a prayer vigil, and demonstrators said it symbolized babies who, they said, would be aborted because of the health care law and was not a threat to Carnahan, Politico reported.

Authorities in New York were investigating a package with white powder sent to Rep. Anthony Weiner's Queens office on Thursday. An accompanying letter referenced health care and told Weiner to "drop dead," according to NBC News. The office building was evacuated. Preliminary field tests found the powder was harmless.

At least one member of the GOP suggested violence had been directed at him. Rep. Eric Cantor, the third-ranking Republican in the House, said Thursday that a bullet had struck his campaign office's building in Richmond, Va., in the last week. Investigators said the bullet appeared to be randomly fired and struck the first floor of the building; the Cantor office is on the top floor, The Associated Press reported. Cantor also said that he had received threatening e-mails.

Congressional leaders on both sides accused the other party of exploiting the violence for political purposes. Cantor demanded that Democratic leaders stop blaming conservative protesters or Republican members of Congress for the heightened tension.

Cantor said that the threats should be treated as law enforcement matters, and strenuously objected to suggestions that Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader John Boehner, shared any responsibility for them.

"It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain," he said. "Enough is enough."

In a statement Thursday, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse dismissed suggestions that Democrats were using the threats for political advantage.

"Instead of distracting from the issue with more attacks, we would again ask Mr. Cantor and other Republicans, as we did yesterday, to join Chairman (Tim) Kaine in working to ratchet down the rhetoric, condemn deplorable behavior and find ways to disagree on these issues without the charged rhetoric that we've been hearing from Republican leaders," Woodhouse said.

Democrats have pointed to statements such as Sarah Palin's tweet this week urging conservatives "do not retreat, RELOAD!" as examples of Republican leaders "fanning the flames" among those angry about the passage of the health care bill. Boehner also predicted in an interview this week that Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) would be "a dead man" after voting for the reform bill.

Boehner spoke of "a grass-roots revolt" against the health care bill, but said that "violence of any kind is unacceptable." He also stressed that he meant Driehaus would only be a "dead man" in the political sense.

Republicans also point out that they've been the targets of threats and vitriol in the past, noting, for example, that anti-war protesters on the left compared George W. Bush to Hitler and called him a war criminal.

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) released a phone message left for her Wednesday. The caller's obscenity-laced tirade referred to a 2008 incident where Schmidt was hit by a car, saying "you should've broke your back," USA Today reported.

"Members of Congress have threats on a regular basis. You always take them seriously," said Schmidt's spokesman, Bruce Pfaff. "The bigger issue is that there are threats being made on both sides."