By slamming one of his own constituents for comparing President Obama to Hitler and health care reform to Nazi practices, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has become one of the heroes of progressives in the health care debate in recent days.   Here is the footage:

Best line: “Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table, I have no interest in doing it.”  I don’t know why it took so long for a Democrat to finally call out one of these people in this way.  Frank’s rebuttal to this woman is effective because he refuses to even argue with her “vile, contemptible, nonsense”, but he also notes that it is a “tribute to the first amendment” that she is able to speak her mind.  This is exactly how more Democrats should respond to the outrageous lies being spread by the townhall tea baggers.  President Obama cannot speak like Rep. Frank did, but it is noteworthy that just yesterday Obama took a more aggressive tone to those who are spreading the “death panels” lie in a conference call with religious leaders.  Democrats need to follow Barney Frank’s lead and push back in stronger terms against the lies that are starting to have a significant impact on the debate.   As Chris Cilizza reports, a recent NBC News poll found that nearly half of the country believe that government officials will make decisions on the health care of seniors (the death panel fabrication) while over half of the population believe the falsehood that health insurance will be made available to illegal immigrants.