ATHENS, Ga. -- President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize shows that the award is "a farce," U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, said Monday.
Obama was awarded the prize Friday after just nine months in office, shocking even many of his most ardent supporters.
"To me, it just shows that the Nobel Peace Prize has become a farce," said Broun, whose district represents much of the Augusta area.
Speaking to a group of Clarke County Republicans, Broun said the Nobel committee is pursuing its own political agenda. He pointed to other winners such as former Vice President Al Gore, who won for publicizing climate change, and former President Jimmy Carter, who won for his humanitarian work.
"The Nobel committee is looking toward people who have a very liberal bent, and they see in Barack Obama somebody who is articulating the type of philosophy that they believe in, so they gave him the prize," Broun said.
The five-member committee, which is elected by the Norwegian Parliament, said it gave Obama the prize for his diplomatic efforts and desire to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Reaction to the prize Friday was mixed. Many Democrats admitted Obama has not done much yet to deserve the award, but believe he eventually will live up to it. Some Republicans simply congratulated him, while others used the news to paint him as the darling of the international left.
Broun also criticized Democratic leaders for attaching unrelated hate-crimes language to a funding bill for the military that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The bill, which is expected to pass the Senate and be signed into law, adds gays to the list of federally protected groups and strengthens penalties for physically attacking a person over sexual orientation. Supporters say it will help prevent violence like the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old man who was tortured and murdered in Montana in 1998. According to FBI statistics, 1,460 crimes were motivated by sexual orientation in 2007, the most recent year on record.
Broun said Democrats only folded the hate-crimes bill into the $681 billion defense bill because they knew it would not pass by itself. He said he voted against the defense bill in hopes of defeating it so the House leadership would remove the hate-crimes language.
"It's going to create a situation where one person's life, one person's property, is going to be considered more valuable than someone else's just because of their sexual orientation," he said. "That's not right. We're all supposed to be equal under the law."
The bill passed the House 281-146 on Thursday. All seven Georgia Republican congressmen voted against it.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
All respectable people voted against the hate crimes bill, but the disreputable left will promote it as Repubs. voting against refunding the military. Having the Dems in control of congress is a fine reprimand for the Repubs lack of frugality, but it's a horrible thing to do the the country and taxpayers. 2010 can't get here too soon.
un-friggen -believable!....the loony lefts are intent on destorying this Country...we must do everything it takes to oust them !!
Paul Broun Augusta's own Michelle Bachmann. WP, you think the repubs will do better next time they are in power in 2030? LOL
The Peace Prize was the Nobel committee's way of giving President Obama the Thank God And Greyhound Award.
I suppose Broun would have been perfectly happy if the Nobel Prize had gone to former President Bush for misleading the country to go to war in Iraq (while the people who attacked us ran free in Afghanistan) or to former Vice President Cheney for steering no-bid contracts to his cronies. Perhaps we could throw in betraying the identity of a CIA agent in retribution for hr husband disagreeing with the administration and make it a joint award for the two of them.
I agree that President Obama has not accomplished as much as the award would normally merit. The committee was obviously making a statement. I think that statement was, "The world is better off with people who at least try to improve the condition of humanity."
As to the hate crimes bill, consider that it is a sword that cuts both ways. If anyone attacks anyone else based on their race, religion,sexual orientation, etc., they can be charged under the statute. See? You just got protection from the hetero-bashing gays.
Concernednative, NO. Almost all of the entire crop of congressmen are too corrupt to hold office.(I do feel they'd do less bad) My only point is that the current incarnation of the Dem party has an agenda this country may not recover from. The change I can believe in entails a D.C. flush.
I agree that a "hate crimes" bill makes no sense. It's redundant, as just about any violent crime involves hate. As for the Peace Prize, get over it. America's back. If you don't like it, secede. Again.
I am sure glad that Mr.Broun has the time to study this problem facing all americans. He must think it is a serious problem because if you ask him, he is "there to do the work of the american people". I just wonder where the Nobel prize fits in with the problems of healthcare, unemployment, and the national debt. I am sure it fits somewhere or else he wouldn't have spent so much time studying it. As for the amendments to the defense bill, I am sure no CONservative has ever done such a dastardly act. Have they?
What is it you like about America's back, twiggy
disss, the Nobel committee assigned the importance to their award. No studying necessary. And, why do you want the Dems to emulate the Repubs if you feel they're so bad? Is the same mindset that refuses to allow you to capitalize America the one that blocks your understanding of the difference between Repubs and conservatives?
Broun is the farce here! He is agreeing and saying the same thing that the Taliban is saying, and Osama is saying. Maybe Brounie should be the Peshewar representative. Why do these people hate America?
Wow, WP! Third grade? Playing hooky today?
What a media pimp. I voted for this idiot Broun and will not make that mistake again.
The hate crimes legislation protects everyone from attack based on sexual orientation, so all of those straight people you hear of being attacked by gay people just because they are straight will be protected, too. And if no gay people are attacked by straight people just because they're gay, the law will never be invoked anyway. Looks like both straights and gays get treated equally. I am sure that all of you who believe so strongly in the Constitution surely don't have a problem with this equality, and I am sure you appreciate President Obama's attempts to make sure that all citizens are treated equally under the Constitution.
Broun is a first-rate embarrassment. He is unable to reason, which apparently proves no impediment, since he votes "No" to 90% of the bills that come before him. Why employ critical thinking and rationality when a knee-jerk reaction will do? I shudder to think what kind of doctor he has been to his patients. The guy's a loon.
Broun was a medical doctor??? Jesus!!!
He just says what a lot of people think but are scared to say outloud
Wow, the "hate America" posters are out in force today. If enough mind reading laws are passed (hate crimes) no one will have to go to the polls...the "guv'ment" will already know what the sheeple want.
Brilliant, HotFoot. Your typical government education perspective is so mirror-image to reality.
I guess Broun is not smart enough to figure out that the award did not go to Obama, it went to "I'm not Bush". Neither is he smart enough to figure out that not everyone in his district is a rich white MD. I certainly do not feel well represented by his narrow elitism (not to say his embarrassing ideas).
As you can see he said it in front of an ALL Republican group LOL... this is a nut if any and ever I saw a nut.
what a douche broun is
Right, Celtic.. Nobody on Fox would dare say such a thing.
FTM: WRONG! If what you theorize was true, you'd see many more white people successfully suing for racial discrimination. You'd see many more men suing for sexual discrimination. There will be no "hate crimes" committed by gays against hetro's because HETROS ARE NOT A PROTECTED GROUP. Ask yourself why on this very site, it appears bigotry and racial attacks directed towards whites are allowed to stand, yet even the appearance of a racial attack directed toward a black is quickly dealt with? Because blacks are a protected group and whites are not. Equality is not these groups goal, supremacy, plain and simple is the objective.
CEITPRO,it is called Zoloft and Prozac. Try some and all those Black people that are chasing you will go away. I promise you it will all be better if you take your meds.