Republican Threatens to Slap Opponent with MS

What is it about Republicans and the handicapped and disabled this week. I’ve already mentioned Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Michael J. Fox, claiming “he is exaggerating the effects of the disease.” There’s also this AP report that a Republican candidate threatened to physically attack an opponent who has multiple sclerosis and uses an electric wheelchair:

Thomas Rankin, the Libertarian running for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat, said Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., threatened to slap him after a televised debate.

During a debate Sunday that also included Democrat Gary Trauner, Cubin and Rankin had a testy exchange over campaign contributions Cubin received from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Rankin, who has multiple sclerosis and uses an electric wheelchair, said Monday night in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the confrontation occurred immediately after the debate.

“My aide and I were packing up to leave the debate, and Barbara walked over to me and said, ‘If you weren’t sitting in that chair, I’d slap you across the face.’ That’s quote-unquote,” Rankin said.

Update: I heard a good response to Limbaugh’s attacks on Michael J. Fox while driving and listening to NPR this afternoon. When Michael J. Fox is on Boston Legal or other shows and they make him appear as if he doesn’t have Parkinson’s Disease, that is acting. When Fox is having tremors and showing the effects of Parkinson’s Disease, that is real life. It took a long time to film Fox’s scenes on Boston Legal to obtain periods in which he was free of tremors and they could obtain film which could be used.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    kj says:

    Why did Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo, let a little thing like the wheelchair stop her?

    Slap him. Do it honestly and bravely and right out there in the open. None of this “You wear glasses” type of excuse. I’m embarrassed for Ms. Barbara, I truly am.

    Letting a wheelchair get in her way. That’s not ‘wingerism. That’s wimpish. Sheesh. Someone call Rove.

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