The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a curious statement:
“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi said, choking up and with tears forming in her eyes. “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.”
Overlooking for the moment how the world would perceive the leader of the legislative branch on the verge of tears, what exactly is she referring to – what happened in the late 1970s in San Francisco?
That was way after MLK Jr and the race riots, so that isn’t it… The logical reference is to the murder of San Francisco mayor Masconi and gay supervisor Harvey Milk (Wikipedia article) in 1978.
Dan White – the man who killed the mayor and Milk – was a Democratic supervisor who resigned his position because of rampant corruption in city government, and financial problems due to not being able to keep his job as a fireman and sit on the Supervisor’s board.
I don’t see any real connections between that incident and anything happening today. Maybe Nancy is crying because she is worried about the death threats Glenn Beck is getting every day?
Seems unlikely. There are lots of things she could do to restore civility to the Democratic process like actually meet with Republicans when legislation is being written, not trying to stifle dissent by making more rules of what House members can’t say on the floor, calling off the pit bulls at Huffington Post and maybe asking President Obama to release his long form birth certificate to get that issue behind us.
The Pineapple Princess (ties to Dole ) only heard or saw the hateful and violent rhetoric arguements ( over Gay rights ) on her TV from her home in St. Francis Woods. ( very exclusive district, mostly millionaires,) In San Francicso.
The biggest push into politics came when Dan White shot Mayor Mosconi and gay supervisor Harvey Milk , which put Diane Feinstein, in office as the Mayor. San Fran Nan Pelosi ran for a political office later.
Dan White’s ( former police officer, and fireman ) family later opened a little space / snack shop on Pier 39 close to Fisherman’s Wharf tourist attraction area selling Potato Skin specialty snack’s to tourists.