starting here:
While speaking Saturday at a gathering of prostate cancer patients, Cunningham cursed at a man the Escondido Republican said was heckling him.
"He flipped me the bird first," Cunningham, who had prostate surgery last month, later told a reporter. "The guy interrupted me four times, and when he started bad-mouthing the military, I had enough. I didn't need that crap."
Rancho Bernardo resident Chuck Cotton, who like Cunningham is a retired Navy man, insists he never made an obscene gesture at the congressman, and that he interrupted only once to suggest that defense spending should be cut even more than it has been.
"That's when he gave me the finger and said '(expletive) you,'" said Cotton, a radioman during World War II and a retired purchaser for McDonald's restaurants. "I think it's unfortunate for a public official to make that kind of expletive, and to gesture to anyone publicly is uncalled for."
..................
then, this:
''Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank -- the gay Massachusetts Democrat about whom Cunningham made a crude comment during his speech -- said yesterday that Cunningham has an odd fascination with homosexuality.
In describing his prostate cancer experience, Cunningham said that a rectal procedure he had undergone was "just not natural, unless maybe you're Barney Frank."
Cunningham later apologized for that reference, too.
"He tends to frequently blurt out stuff on gay issues," said Frank in a telephone interview in Washington. "He seems to be more interested in discussing homosexuality than most homosexuals."
But Frank dismissed Cunningham's insult as coming from a man not well respected in Congress.
"He's not a guy who's taken all that seriously," Frank said. "He does not have a high reputation for the thoughtful, analytical content of his remarks."
It is not the first time Cunningham -- who underwent surgery to remove his cancerous prostate gland last month -- has come under fire for controversial remarks about homosexuals or the military.
In 1995, he referred to gays as "homos" on the House floor, and later apologized. He also has suggested that gays in the military would "degrade the national security."
Referring to President Clinton's anti-war activities during the Vietnam War, Cunningham once said Clinton "would be tried as a traitor and even shot" if he lived in another nation. ''
http://dukecunningham.org/bibliography/obscene.htmlremember hearing about ANY of this at the time?
"tried as a traitor and even shot?"
gee, that kinda makes Dean's remarks sound a bit tepid, don't it?
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