Olbermann Condemns “Teabaggers” To Hell Over Ugly Healthcare Fracas

by Robert Quigley | 11:15 am, November 24th, 2009

» 16 comments

Sometimes, Worst Person status isn’t enough. In last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann not only named Chicago Tea Patriots organizer Catherina Wojtowicz his Worst Person, but condemned her and her followers to hell for mocking a pro-health reform husband and wife who had lost their daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild to untreated double pneumonia.

When Dan and Midge Hough spoke in favor of health reform at a town hall meeting in Illinois earlier this month using their deep personal loss as a reference point, they were jeered by Chicago Tea Patriots in attendance. Wojtowicz later accused the couple of being Obama “operatives.”

A reporter for the Southtown Star verified that the Houghs’ story was true, and called the incident “a low mark in a very dark week:”

Catherina Wojtowicz, of Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community, an organizer for a Tea Party splinter group, Chicago Tea Party Patriots, falsely claimed that the Houghs fabricated their story. In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who “go from event to event and (cry) the same story.”

When the Houghs spoke at the Lipinski event, some Tea Partiers ridiculed them. They moaned and rolled their eyes and interrupted. Midge Hough began to cry.

The audience, Wojtowicz later explained, was exasperated by stories of isolated tragedies that cloud debate over the health care bill itself.

“What we are talking about is the bill,” she said. “We’ve all had family members pass away, but would this health care bill really have prevented (Jenny’s) death? We do question it.”

It certainly was a low mark in a very dark week. What could be more illustrative of our state’s political marshland than openly mocking a grieving family?

Olbermann didn’t go for the same level of nuance: on his MSNBC.com page, referred to the Chicago Tea Patriots in question as “heartless teabaggers.” Still, he had an eloquent moment at the end of the segment:

After a local newspaper reporter verified the Houghs’ account, Ms. Wojtowicz defended herself by saying the protesters were frustrated by all these ‘isolated tragedies’ that get in the way of the discussion of the bill.

Ma’am, that’s what healthcare is: it’s a series of isolated tragedies. Isolated until they happen to you…

Moment of introspection accomplished, it was back to hyperbolic body blows: Olbermann went (non-denominationally) Biblical on Wojtowicz and the other Chicago Tea Partiers. “If any of the world’s major religions are right, ma’am, you, and for what you and the other people did to the Houghs, you’re going to hell.”

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Here’s the video of the original town hall meeting (h/t Raw Story):

Catherina Wojtowicz, chicago tea party protesters, Chicago Tea Patriots, Dan Hough, Heartless Teabaggers, keith olbermann, Midge Hough, Tea Partiers, Tea Party, Worst Person In the World

http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

As distasteful and spiteful as Wojtowicz’s comments were, Olbermann is supposed to be a professional of some kind. Telling people to go to Hell is easy to do from a heavily secured studio in New York. Plus, he just further extends the nasty tone of all political debate these days.

If the world’s religions are correct, then Olbermann is going to Hell, too, for all this judgment he feels entitled to pass around.
germ

@Keeva

Don’t forget, the Super-Hypocritical Olberdouche would be the first to call out another commentator for the same antic. Probably even on the World’s Worst and just because he doesn’t agree with them.
rmbltmbl

They call Glenn Beck shocking and scary.

Scott Fenstermaker? Any time now Mediaite.
Nobodyuknow

Who on earth cares what the heck Keith Doberman thinks. What’s two times nothing?
hkyplayer

It is too bad these people lost there daughter-in-law and unborn child but 30,000 people die each year from the flu and pneumonia in America.
We can find stories where people ignored going to the doctor or ER when they should have taken responsibility on themselves. I think alot of blame comes on the individual and the stupidity of there actions.

I still see sometimes pregnant women still smoking …What do you expect!
http://glassbead.info Magister

You would think that at some point in recent history, Bill O’Reilly might have editorialized based on something from a local market. In this instance, we do have the convergence of a national cable pundit, a YouTube from a citizen journalist and a local paper, but I find it kind of hard to believe that this is the only time such a thing has happened in recent memory.
TfT

I also read how Keith complained about the media for covering Glenn’s rally but not his healthcare event. Poor baby.
MartiniShark

@TfT
That was a sweet piece of video, Olbermann lamenting that the press was covering Beck’s event while his much more upright event, which he said was paid for by himself and had “More than a thousand” in attendance, should have been covered instead. When Bill Clinton declares your event was over-politicized you should maybe begin listening.
cjr

I have sent a copy of this news release to friends around the world – telling them this slime bag is the face of the tea bag republican movement in the US. I have also sent this to every media outlet that I could find. apparently others are doing the same. I can only hope that she does the right thing and get out of this country immediately. She doen’t belong here. also suggest that anyone who participated in this event – find someplace to hide – hopefully in a rat filled cave – in Somolia
imabornagainatheist2

He didn’t condemn them to hell. He said something to the effect, that if the world’s religions are correct, then they are going to hell.
Which, by the way, I would agree with that, if there was a hell.
They are likely making their own hell right here on earth, as most miserable mean people do. They cannot be very happy people to act this way.
imabornagainatheist2

check out this comment posted elsewhere:
“This woman Catherina is, at best, unstable. I received a flyer from the Chicago Tea Party stuck under the windshield wiper of my car. I am fortunate to be able to drive an expensive car and prefer people to leave it alone (especially on private property). She was the contact so I called and complained. She spent the next hour calling me 25 times, leaving a dozen messages (some very unpleasant), texting me “idiot”, “pure idiot”, etc. She proceeded to facebook my phone number (after being smart enough to tell me she would do so in a text and voicemail) so others could harrass me (which they did). Well, now a judge has issued an arrest warrent for her and they know where she’ll be Nov. 7.” -http://www.streetwisepundit.com/catherina-wojtowicz-birther-fudging-chicago-tea-party-numbers.php
and this one shows up everywhere:
http://www.streetwisepundit.com/chicago-tea-party-leader-threatens-to-shoot-blogger.php
The heckling does not sound out of character, does it?
cw-admin

A little PhotoShoppage: http://bit.ly/784Z8A
imabornagainatheist2

how funny! (cw-admin)
ImNotBlue

cw-admin says:
November 24, 2009 at 10:31 pm
A little PhotoShoppage

imabornagainatheist2 says:
November 24, 2009 at 11:10 pm

Ah yes… the obligatory Hitler reference.

Man… you guys on the left cannot have a conversation, or make an argument without referencing HItler for some reason. Are you so insecure about your political position, that this is the best you can come up with? Wow.

Go on… tell me about tolerance and respect. Tell me how YOU value it, and those on the right just “don’t understand.” And then make your Hitler reference… and pat each other on the back. You are just as bad as the people you complain about… perhaps worse, because YOU think YOU’RE offensive language is somehow MORE okay than the other guy’s.

Disgusting.
Sunnyr

Keith Olbermann, the whiny bit*ch, can go to HELL! This Bill, IF it passes, will be unrecognizable to the commie pukes who want nationalized health care. It ain’t gonna happen, Overbite! Deal with it!
mightymail

Those on the right like Bill O’Reilly etc., and those on the left like Keith Olbermann. I get it.

And let’s for a moment push aside who is and who is not going to hell, and let the big guy upstairs decide that.

I have a 16-month-old baby girl that I love dearly. I see the joy in my mom and my husband’s mom’s eyes when they spend time with her. The idea of an almost grandmother losing both her grandchild and her daughter-in-law is just sad. That story doesn’t move you? “Too bad, people die from pneumonia every year.”

I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on. Heartless is heartless.

The right touts its respect for life. These “teabaggers” certainly weren’t demonstrating their support for that.

Left or right, spewing hatred doesn’t move this country in a positive direction.

There’s got to be a different way for these folks to advance their agenda besides heckling a grieving grandmother. If you support their actions, you’re part of the problem.