Republicans Use ‘Anti-American’ Charge on House Floor as Well as Campaign Trail

Poe, in his second term from the Houston suburbs, has targeted Columbia University and Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel — as well as Democratic-written energy bills.

“As a former judge, it appears to me the abuse of power by this anti-American military, peacenik judge is the perfect example of her having a terminal case of black robe disease, a disease some judges get when their personal politics cloud their judgment,” Poe said on March 10, after Mackel reportedly told a 17-year-old she opposed the Iraq war while denying his request for early enlistment into the Marine Corps.

“Columbia University clearly shows a pattern of being anti-American by promoting forums to warmongers and by preventing the U.S. military ROTC program on campus. Maybe the university should just relocate to Tehran. And in the meantime, the U.S. taxpayers have no business sending American money to the University of Hate,” he said on the day in September 2007 that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia.

Poe said he stands by what he said about Mackel and Columbia but wouldn’t go so far as to describe colleagues as anti-American.

“It’s anti-American to be against the military who are constitutionally required to protect and serve the United States,” he said. “I don’t pin rhetoric like that on members of Congress, but Columbia University and a judge, yeah, I’ll take them on.”

The charge of anti-Americanism has drawn increased scrutiny since Rep. Michele Bachmann , a Minnesota Republican, called for a media investigation into whether members of Congress are “pro-America” or “anti-America” last Friday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

Bachmann, who expressed her concern that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama harbors “anti-American views,” has seen her opponent’s campaign coffers swell by $1 million in less than a week as furious Democrats write checks to try to oust her from office.

Since then, tapes have surfaced of Rep. Robin Hayes , R-N.C., saying “liberals hate real Americans” and of Randy Kuhl, R-N.Y., arguing that the Democratic majority in Congress “wants the American public to suffer” for political gain.

Bachmann, Hayes and Kuhl are all involved in highly competitive bids for re-election, while Poe and Foxx are considered safe for re-election by CQ Politics.

Jeremy Straughn, a professor at Purdue University who has studied public views of patriotism, said that voters are more likely to rally around the flag in the immediate aftermath of an international crisis but view criticism of the country’s direction — what he calls “critical patriotism” — as a patriotic duty later on.

That might explain why Bachmann, Hayes and Kuhl are facing a sharper backlash for suggesting opponents lack patriotism than they might have in the first few elections after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assault on the United States.

“It’s likely that during the period where critical patriotism is more prominent than blind patriotism, then appeals to blind patriotism may be counterproductive,” he said.