Trouble in NASCAR country

What happened

Congressional committee staff members returned to Washington under a cloud of controversy after a visit to Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway and North Carolina’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where the Bank of America 500 was run on Saturday. Republican lawmakers and NASCAR officials criticized Democrats leading up to the trip—which was made to visit health clinics at the racetracks—after an official with the House Committee on Homeland Security the Democratic chairman get vaccinated for hepatitis A and B before the NASCAR events.

What the commentators said

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The “tolerant liberals” made a “colossal mistake this time,” said Brett Winterble in HumanEvents.com. This sad incident revealed “so much about Democrats’ contempt for America.” Everyone knows liberals dismiss NASCAR fans as racists and hayseeds. This is one insult too many, but we’ll see who gets the last laugh. “Guess what, liberals, these folks vote.”

Republicans got plenty of mileage out of this one, said Dan Worthington in the Fayatteville, N.C., Observer. “The good old boys and girls of the Republican Party” didn’t waste any time jumping on the email advising staffers to get their shots. The National Republican Congressional Committee pointed to the note as a sign of how out of touch Democrats in Washington were with the rest of the country. “Ouch!”

Another day, another Republican “smear” campaign, said Dave Johnson on the blog Seeing the Forest.com. Of course, Democrats quickly refuted the “lies,” by pointing out that immunizations are routine whenever staffers visit medical facilities where they could be exposed to communicable diseases. But the “Republican machine” can’t let the truth get in the way of a good smear.