Protestors gathered early on the West Front of the Capitol to plead with Democrats to abandon their push for a sweeping health care bill. Dems say protesters used N-word

It was a tense scene outside a meeting of Democratic lawmakers as a 100 or so protesters chanted "kill the bill," and one man launching a homophobic slur at Rep. Barney Frank.

Frank, who is gay, was leaving the Longworth House Office Building when a man yelled a charged homophobic slur at the Massachusetts lawmaker.


Other protesters quickly admonished the shouter, with one woman yelling back, "We don't need that."

When Rep. John Lewis said he was voting for the bill, someone yelled, "Baby killer."

Later, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said that he heard from Lewis that another protestor later called him the N-word. A Lewis staffer confirmed that Lewis had been the target of that slur.

Clyburn decried that language to a group of reporters after President Barack Obama spoke to House Democrats.

“I heard people saying things today I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus,” Clyburn said, responding to a question about epithets uttered at his colleagues. “It was shocking to me.”

Cyburn said that he had also engaged with a few conservative hecklers, and told one of them: “‘I’m the hardest person in the world to intimidate.’ So they better go somewhere else.”

Pivoting to the thousands of protesters there to register their opposition to the health bill, Clyburn painted them broadly as a reactionary force, and the bill as an extension of other movements to grant basic rights:

“Well, a lot of us have been saying (for) a long time that much of this, much of this, is not about health care at all, and I think a lot of those people today demonstrated that this is not about health care,” he said. “It’s about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful.”

A spokesman for Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) issued a statement Saturday evening confirming earlier second-hand reports that the Congressman had been spit on, and again equating the health care bill with the civil rights movement:

“For many of the members of the CBC, like John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver who worked in the civil rights movement, and for Mr. Frank who has struggled in the cause of equality, this is not the first time they have been spit on during turbulent times.

“This afternoon, the Congressman was walking into the Capitol to vote, when one protester spat on him. The Congressman would like to thank the US Capitol Police officer who quickly escorted the other Members and him into the Capitol, and defused the tense situation with professionalism and care. After all the Members were safe, a full report was taken and the matter was handled by the US Capitol Police. The man who spat on the Congressman was arrested, but the Congressman has chosen not to press charges. He has left the matter with the Capitol Police.

“This is not the first time the Congressman has been called the "n" word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans. That being said, he is disappointed that in the 21st century our national discourse has devolved to the point of name calling and spitting. He looks forward to taking a historic vote on health care reform legislation tomorrow, for the residents of the Fifth District of Missouri and for all Americans. He believes deeply that tomorrow's vote is, in fact, a vote for equality and to secure health care as a right for all. Our nation has a history of struggling each time we expand rights. Today's protests are no different, but the Congressman believes this is worth fighting for.”