Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Virginia Foxx on Hate Crimes

Today, the Hate Crimes bill passed Congress, and according to her twitterfeed, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) managed the rule debate. According to that tweet, she thought the bill was about "Thought Crimes" not hate crimes, a significant difference. Salon's Glenn Greenwald, an opponent of hate speech laws, whom Foxx quoted to build her argument, offers this common-sense distinction:
Hate speech laws and hate crimes laws are entirely different, since the former punishes the pure expression of ideas while the latter involves the commission of actual crimes, usually quite violent and serious crimes. One can easily and coherently oppose the former but support the latter.
Congress Matters also notices Foxx' floor presence. During her time, she mentioned that the hate crime behind Matthew Shepard's murder, the tragic precedent to this bill, was a hoax; he was murdered during a robbery, not for being gay, according to Foxx. Media Matters catches the video (below) and offers historical meda clips to disprove Foxx' theory, as well as does AmericaBLOG. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) also reacted to Foxx' statement:
"She should be ashamed," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), himself a victim of a hate crime during the struggle for civil rights. "That is unreal, unbelievable. The law enforcement people and almost every reasonable person I know believes he was murdered because he was gay."
Glad I'm outta that district.

12 comments:

matt said...

is this post a comment on hate crime legislation or just that she was wrong?

Drew said...

haha. sorry. it's been my experience, that most people, both democrats and republicans, who live within the district and are knowledgeable politically, find her an out-of-touch representative. i've known a handful of republicans who have said this, so its not my democratic bias. she was off-base when i managed a campaign against her, and she remains so. but she still wins re-election convincingly, a testiment to the gerrymandering within NC.

The netroots just caught her again, and I had to comment. So, to your question, the latter.

matt said...

i've never heard great things about her, so i'm not surprised.

then again, there are lots of nimwits who win over and over. man i'd sure like some term limits.

Drew said...

i think that is something most americans, regardless of political ideology, actually agree on.

i heard, though its still speculation, that it would never pass the senate, whose senators enjoy repeated re-elections. heck, grandfather everyone in until they retire/lose, so they are immune from it ... then let their successor have term limits.

and it would also be better to have non-partisan redistricting. partisan redistricting gerrymanders for the party in power. bi-partisan redistricting gerrymanders so both parties maximize incumbency. non-partisan, where a group of non-partisan officials, however elected or appointed, etc., would really let the people realize their voice.

Anonymous said...

The perfect void. It is as if she comes to Congress ill prepared mentally and tries be less prepared by the end of the day. She is a Bush leftover that is just taking up room. To the question who would be a worst representative for NC-5 the answer is NO ONE!!

Darren Staley said...

Drew,

I'm still here, still working my a$$ off. Maybe I should just run my effing self.

Katie said...

Darren,

Do it. I'd vote for you, if I could. :-)

Matt F. said...

I don't like hate crime legislation that much, it seems to make a silly distinction to me. But Foxx is clearly an idiot on this matter. This is why I wish there were legitimate republicans left. There are decent arguments to be made against this legislation, and I would like to agree with the Republicans on something, anything.

Anonymous said...

This lady is as uninformed as Virgil Goode... I'd like to say, "A day late, and a dollar short..." but she's not even near that!! She should hook up with good ole` Virgil...they could compare stories that scare the public, that aren't even real...

How dumb do they think we are?

Anonymous said...

Rep Foxx could have spoken against the bill without mentioning matt shepard. Why call it a Hoax?
Was she there a the murder scene?

Anonymous said...

It seems that the GOP has a choice here....Call Virginia Foxx out and smack her upside the head for being so d*** dumb, or ride into the sunset with the likes of her. The party is in crisis over being ultra conservative (and pushing moderates out) or throwing out the leftovers from the Bush embarrassment in order to be a viable party again. Ball in in the GOP court.

James said...

Disgraceful in all ways. I agree with all the talking heads, this Representative is a disgrace, unfit to represent and should apologize to the Shepherd family, the American people and to the world. Matthew Shepherd's fate was not a hoax. By the very words of those that killed him, it was a hate crime. Virginia Foxx shame is to small a price, you should step down. I agree with all above, she is leftovers on a table of plenty.