GOP, Tea Party try to distance themselves from racial taunts

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Republican Party officials and Tea Party protest organizers Sunday blasted health care bill demonstrators who hurled racial and homophobic slurs at black and gay lawmakers at the Capitol Saturday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, D-Ohio, appaering on NBC's "Meet the Press,"called the actions by some protesters "reprehensible" and maintained that they were isolated incidents that shouldn’t reflect on Tea Party participants as a whole. Amy Kremer, coordinator of the Tea Party Express, agreed.

“I absolutely think it’s isolated,â€