FL Dem Rep. Joe Garcia calls House Republicans the “Taliban”

Did you see the latest lapse in judgment from Congressman Joe Garcia? Today, Garcia decided to throw any hopes of working with his House colleagues out the window by calling his Republican colleagues the “Taliban” on the House floor.

Watch the “Taliban” name calling video below:

NRCC Statement: “Congressman Joe Garcia’s lack of judgment is astounding! The fact that he would call his own colleagues the ‘Taliban’ while we are in the midst of a crisis shows that not only is Garcia classless, but that he has no intention of working with his colleagues to end this shutdown.” – NRCC Spokeswoman Katie Prill

Full Video from C-Span: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4466843

In case you missed it…

Rep. Joe Garcia: ‘extremist elements, this Taliban’ is blocking budget deal
Miami Herald
By Marc Caputo

Looks like the era of conflating terrorism and budget talks isn’t going away anytime soon in Congress.

In a speech on the U.S. House floor, Miami Democrat U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia called on Republicans to jettison conservative “Taliban,” who have insisted on passing a budget resolution that defunds, delays or degrades Obamacare.

The Democratic controlled Senate says it wants a “clean” budget bill. Neither side is budging. So the government at midnight Tuesday started partially shutting down with the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year.

“The time has come to put these guys aside,” Garcia said, reading his remarks. “We just need our colleagues to step up, push aside these extremist elements, this Taliban.”

Garcia’s reference is the latest terrorism-related metaphor in the House, where Texas Rep. John Culberson endorsed a GOP plan to fight on by reportedly saying: “I said, like 9/11, ‘let’s roll!’” Liberal outrage ensued.

The last time a congressional Taliban reference made news in Florida was in 2010 when Rep. Alan Grayson ran a misleading ad calling Dan Webster “Taliban Dan.” Webster went on to win the race, Grayson has since been reelected to another seat.

Republicans appear ready to throw the outrage back at Democrats over Garcia’s statement, posting a clip on YouTube with the title: “Rep. Joe Garcia Refers To Colleagues As ‘Taliban.'”

However, because the clip begins in the midst of his speech, it’s not clear if Garcia was speaking about his colleagues or if he were referring to outside groups that have insisted on the degradation or destruction of Obamacare.

Here’s the transcript of Garcia’s speech from the clip:

“The time has come to put these guys aside. Come to a deal. We can fix a lot of these problems. We’ve cut government spending. We can do more of it. We can make government more efficient. We can fix the sequester and give agencies more flexibility. We agree with all of that on this side.

“We just need our colleagues to step up, push aside these extremist elements, this Taliban….”