A reader with a long memory brought an episode from Jason Lewis's career to Bluestem's attention following the Minnesota Second District Congressman's cries that protests in front of his home were a “dangerous ramping up of rhetoric.”
The St. Paul Press reports in Minnesota’s Rep. Jason Lewis calls protest at his Woodbury home dangerous:
Minnesota Rep. Jason Lewis is taking issue with protesters who showed up outside his Woodbury home.
The Wednesday morning protest at the first-term Republican congressman’s house was organized by Take Action Minnesota, a liberal advocacy group. Video footage posted on Lewis’ Facebook page shows more than a dozen protesters chanting outside a home before delivering a large letter calling on Lewis to oppose cuts to Medicaid funding.
Lewis is a former conservative radio talk show host who won the 2nd Congressional District seat this fall. He called the protest a violation of his private property and “dangerous ramping up of rhetoric” that targeted his family.
A spokeswoman from Take Action Minnesota says Lewis should simply hold a town hall to meet with constituents who want to speak with him.
That's quite a change from Lewis's beliefs about the privacy of people in the public arena in 2008. Steve Perry reported in the Twin Cities Daily Planet article, Thug radio: Are Jason Lewis and KTLK now in the jihad business?:
After a scheduled appearance by the pro-war veterans’ group Vets for Freedom at Forest Lake Area High School was canceled early last week, bloggers and talk radio denizens on the right reacted with outrage — much of it directed expressly at Stillwater blogger, activist, and military veteran Karl Bremer for his role in a letter-writing campaign that contributed to the cancellation of the event. Republican U.S. Rep Michelle Bachmann, of Stillwater, was to appear as well.
The websites Look True North and Minnesota Majority posted letter generators for writing to Bremer that include his photograph and, for a time, included his home address and home and work phone numbers as well.
On Tuesday evening, right-wing KTLK-FM talk host Jason Lewis had the following exchange with a caller (emphasis added):
Caller: Back to this Bremer. To put a little fight back into the Republicans, what you need to do is get Karl Bremer’s address, phone number, and his other members of this little Democrat underground that protests, and let’s get a little protest going on his front doorstep so he can get a little taste of his own medicine. Hold his feet to the fire. Make him responsible for some of the actions he does…
Jason Lewis: I don’t lead a jihad against individuals unless they happen to be in the public arena. Of course, you could make the argument this guy’s now in the public arena. But if citizens are truly fed up with a small minority of socialist kooks in Stillwater, led by this Karl Bremer character who’s got a bizarre obsession with Michele Bachmann, I can’t be held accountable for what citizens might come up with. If you want to let this guy know you think he’s a bum, that’s up to you. I’m just saying that people ought to know his name, because he’s the guy, the ringleader, in Veterans for Peace and all this, that literally are censoring veterans.
Caller: Right, right. Well, or maybe a website. If they have a website, they could crash the website. You know, if you don’t want any legal repercussions for what might happen. Because he would probably get some kook fringe lawyer to come back and sue you or K-Talk. I can understand that, not wanting to have any legal repercussion or responsibility…
Lewis: Yeah, right. Well, the problem with these protesters–the problem they’ve got is, they entered the public arena. They are out there. What is it, democrat underground dot org or something? Democratic underground dot com. They are out there in the ether. Karl Bremer has been out there putting his name in the papers in his letters to the editor bashing Michele Bachmann. So he is now a public person, and hence he’s going to take the slings and arrows just like he hands them out. Long overdue, to be sure.
An old-school investigative journalist, Blogger Karl Bremer kept Stillwater on its toes, the Star Tribune's Kevin Giles wrote in Bremer's 2013 obituary:
Bremer took on the rich and powerful in his blog, for which he won state awards for "best use of public records." He also was an architect of an anti-Bachmann website and assailed promoters of a new St. Croix River bridge as inflicting the public with "a river of misinformation" about its costs and consequences. "You make some friends along the way and some enemies," he said.
His wife, Chris, described him Wednesday as "a champion for the little guy" who initiated long conversations with strangers about various topics. "I know he's going to be missed for many reasons, as a music lover and a rabble-rouser. He was larger than life," she said. . . .
In Friday's City Pages, Susan Du reports in Congressman Jason Lewis 'appalled' by protesters at his door:
A group of about 20 protesters showed up at U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis' (R) house in Woodbury on Wednesday. They coursed up his driveway bearing signs, crowded around his front step, and chanted about healthcare loudly enough for his neighbors to hear. Lewis had supported the Republican health care bill, which included deep cuts to Medicaid.
Lewis wasn't at home, but when he heard about the "invasion" later, he was incensed, calling the protest a "wanton disregard of civility," and a "dangerous ramping up of rhetoric that already has one of my House colleagues in rehab from a vicious attack."
Lewis' office didn't respond to our calls, but [in a Facebook post] the congressman appears to be refering to U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is in rehabilitation after a Bernie Sanders supporter shot him during practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in June.
A video of the protest accompanied Lewis' post as evidence, though instead of threatening mobsters, protesters are elderly ladies, a senior gentleman in a wheelchair, homecare workers, and a handful of young activists with TakeAction Minnesota. The group led a set of chants for a few minutes, before reading aloud from a letter, which was then propped against Lewis' door. . . .
Picketing congressmen's homes isn't a new tactic, as a google search reveals. Among the hits? An example from 1966 when the Milwaukee Youth Council of the NAACP picketed homes of judges and a congressman.
Is the tactic effective? In Bremer's case, he kept digging and writing. Rather, the now and then contrast demonstrates hypocrisy, personal growth or both on Lewis's part.
Bluestem wouldn't suggest it in greater Minnesota, remembering a protest at Alexandria-area Republican House member Mary Franson, who tweeted her recollection earlier this week:
I remember the "protest" outside my house in 2012. All it did was make them look like bullies. https://t.co/RAMXL5IDO7 #cd2 #TeamJasonLewis
— Mary Franson (@MaryFranson) August 11, 2017
We'll go farther than public decorum allows Franson to venture: they looked like idiots. We're not sure if the folks Du describes will come off as bullies so much as citizens desperate for a public dialogue with their congressman. Lewis, however, has a chance to step up as a person in the public arena. Hosting a town hall or two in his district would be a courageous start.
Photo: The late Karl Bremer, an investigative blogger. (Via Star Tribune). Bremer's role as a person in the public arena prompted then talk-radio host Jason Lewis, R-MN02, to see no problem with doxing his home address or facing what Lewis thought were the "long overdue" "the slings and arrows just like he hands them out" of his investigative writing. Perhaps Lewis wants a different standard for himself now that he's in Congress, not merely on the radio.
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