Rochester Dem Chairman Denounces ‘Crazy’ Attack On Headquarters

Monroe County Democratic Chairman Joe Morelle is denouncing an attack on his party’s Rochester HQ that he believes was in reaction to the passage of the health care reform bill by the House Sunday.

I think the people who do this kind of thing are cowards,” Morelle told me. “I don’t consider this civil disobedience. That’s usually non-violent and you get arrested…There’s legitimate ways to protest. This is frightening. It is crazy and sick. What’s next? We take baseball bats and hit the people we don’t like?”

Morelle said someone threw a brick through the double glass doors at the HQ, shattering one of them and spider-webbing the other.

The weapon: A brick, to which a piece of paper bearing the message “Extremism is defense of liberty is no vice” was attached with a rubber band.

That’s a Barry Goldwater quote. The rest of it goes as follows: “The moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” He said it at the 1964 National GOP Convention (actually, according to Wikipedia, the line is attributable to Goldwater’s speechwriter, Karl Hess).

Morelle said the brick was thrown sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. It is being linked to an Alabama-based blogger, who encouraged his readers to “Break their windows. Break them now.”

“Yet, if we do a thorough job of breaking Democrat windows, I am sure that the GOP will profit from the example,” the blog reads. “So, if you wish to send a message that Pelosi and her party cannot fail to hear, break their windows.”

Rep. Louise Slaughter, who was a central figure during the health care debate, reportedly had the windows of her Niagara Falls office broken, too.