Chicago Tea Party members mock grieving family at town hall

By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 -- 7:35 pm
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healthcareprotester Chicago Tea Party members mock grieving family at town hallNow this is low, even for bare-knuckle politics.

That's how Chicago reporter Kristen McQueary described the ugly scene which emerged during a Nov. 14 town hall with Rep. Dan Lipinski.

Facing an audience stacked with Tea Party members, Lipinski introduced a family who believe they lost a daughter and unborn grandchild because the girl did not have health insurance. Dan and Midge Hough, of Chicago, said their daughter-in-law Jenny, 24, was not receiving basic prenatal care and fell ill with double pneumonia. She eventually developed septic shock and went into respiratory failure.

"Her baby died in the womb, and Jenny died a few weeks later, leaving behind a husband and a 2-year-old daughter," noted McQueary, writing for The South Town Star.

When Midge Hough took the stage to tell Jenny's tale, the Tea Party crowd began to jeer, mocking her story and accusing her of inventing the sad affair.

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"She didn't have to die," Hough said. "The cost of that was $1.5 million, or just a little more than that. You guys are going to absorb the cost of that, is what I'm saying. That's what happens. It's not just Jennifer, it's all of the people that are out there that are sick and don't have insurance."

After another round of cackles from the audience, she retorted: "You can laugh at me. That's okay. I get it. I get it. But I lost two people. I know you think that's funny."

"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," South Town added. "In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who 'go from event to event and (cry) the same story.'"

The reporter characterized the event as "a low mark in a very dark week."

This video was published to YouTube by user dhough1976 on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009.

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Story comments are below...

  • raine1951
    Why these are just a group of Christian Republicans voicing their views about anyone who isn't one of "them"...you know..."Real Americans". These horrible souls remind me more of demons than fellow human beings. Heartless, nasty, mean-spirited, greedy, slobbering, sloths...they have to have oozed up from the fourth level of Hell to torment the poor, the weak, the widowed and orphaned.
  • starvapor
    These Teabaggers, if given the chance, would have been standing next to the ovens at Auschwitz cheering loudly as their fellow Nazis threw bodies into the flames.
  • regretfulrepub
    Naturally, these simpletons can believe someone would lie about such tragedy to gain an advantage because they are the kind of people who have done such a thing themselves, would either do such a thing themselves or approve of such things being done on their behalf to get what they want. And their being this kind of amoral ass, none of us who could never abide such behavior from ourselves or by any one advocating our cause will ever convince such twisted minds other people are not like them.
  • Savantster
    .
    my co-worker said we need to stay in Iraq and blow up babies because if we left oil prices would go up increasing the cost of fuel for her SUV and causing higher unemployment here which would raise her taxes and she just doesn't like paying taxes.

    blowing up babies is cool because it helps me keep more money in my pocket, is what she might as well have said.
    .
  • yvonneo
    The true nature of these teabaggers is finally being revealed in all of its ugliness. This woman lost her child and grandchild to what she believed was the lack of healthcare insurance and these subhuman bastards MOCKED and LAUGHED at her in her face over what must be the worst tragedy of her life. What kind of people could possible do something so horrible? Evil is the word that comes to my mind.

    We'll see how funny they think it is when karma comes back at them with a vengeance and starts bitch-slapping these bastards.

    I am absolutely sickened, disgusted and very angry at these people--that they could laugh at something so tragic. They crossed the line of human decency on this one and the rest of us should come down on them like a category 5 hurricane and send their little teabagger movement into obscurity where it belongs. These people are not patriots. Hell, after this, they hardly qualify as human.
  • wiseturtle
    Aren't they just wonderful Jesus-loving, pious white Christians? NOT!!...goddamn racist freaks from the bottom the septic tank.
  • dennycrane
    Wow! A new name for them---the "septic-tankers." Excellent.
  • rickpetes
    I like it! How do we get it to go viral?
  • roy_T
    We may be looking at our future leaders if the Democrats don't straigten up their act.
  • Savantster
    .
    it's sad because it's true :(
    .
  • mglamb
    The only thing I pity about these people is their existence. They are evil. Just pure evil. I do believe in karma and these heartless thugs will get theirs.
  • Savantster
    .
    karma is just like god.. it makes you feel better about not doing anything yourself. It has the same effect, too, in that the abusers keep on abusing without consequence in this world, this life, where it matters to real people.

    There is no evidence for god and there is no evidence for karma. We must live in the physical world and act according. The Sky Fairy isn't going to punish people, people have to punish people.
    .
  • These people are boorish ignorant pigs. I went to a "tea party", and said Bush/Paulson started the bailouts, and they said it wasn't true. So, there's no talking to them.
  • johnbis
    Open season on Tea Baggers.By any means necessary
  • roy_T
    FIGHT THE RIGHT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • dennycrane
    I wouldn't piss on one of these "bircher-nazis" if they were on fire. Period.
  • Savantster
    .
    I'mma go set one on fire and test that theory :D
    .
  • gr0o
    These people believe that if you don't have insurance that it's because you're lazy and looking for a handout. They claim not to know a single person who works (or worked) and isn't covered. They have no compassion whatsoever, and are perfectly happy having an uninsured underclass even though they are way off base on the demographic composition of that group.
  • donofcali
    Dear Lord,

    Please let the same thing that happened to this couple happen to all of the cackling tea party republicons in the audience.

    In Jesus name, Amen.
  • dennycrane
    I second the nomination.
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