Dem Congressman charged with assault and battery at Dulles

But you wouldn’t have known it was California Dem Congressman Bob Filner in some of the early reporting on the story, which Mark Finkelstein discusses here.

As ST reader sanity noted in the comments of the most recent open thread, had this guy been a Republican, it would have been one of the first things you read about him.

Here are the details of the alleged incident:

Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) was involved in an altercation last night at Dulles Airport. He was allegedly angered by the amount of time it was taking to get his luggage and tried to push his way through the United Airlines baggage claim office. The release below is from Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

“Around 6 PM on Sunday, Aug. 19, Airports Authority Police were called to the United Airlines bag claim office at Dulles for a report of an incident with a passenger regarding his baggage. The individual allegedly attempted to enter an area authorized for airline employees only, pushed aside the employee’s outstretched arm and refused to leave the area when asked by an airline employee. When MWAA officers arrived a few minutes later, the man had left the office and was waiting in the area of a bag carousel. Officers interviewed him and witnesses and released him. Before the individual left the airport, officers advised him that the airline employee would be pursuing charges. The airline employee appeared before a Loudoun County Magistrate later that evening and a summons was obtained charging Robert Filner (DOB 09/04/1942) with assault and battery, a class 1 misdemeanor. Mr. Filner is scheduled to appear in Loudoun County General District Court on October 2.”

Filner’s people had this to say in response:

“Congressman Bob Filner is on his way to Iraq, visiting our troops, and will have a full statement when he returns. Suffice it to say now, that the story that has appeared in the press is factually incorrect-and the charges are ridiculous.”

Mmmhmm.

Gateway Pundit reminds us that Filner is the founder of the “Progressive” Caucus. I’d say “Aggressive” Caucus would be more like it. (badaboom! I’ll be here all week, folks …)

Here’s more, from The Politico’s Crypt blog (h/t: Kim Priestap):

It remains to be seen how Filner will handle the potentially embarrassing incident. The charges and the details of what happened at Dulles Airport on Sunday night are now part of the public record at a magistrate’s office in Loudoun County, Va., near Dulles Airport.

Will be interesting to see if the mediots follow up on this once Filner returns from his trip to Iraq, and furthermore, what the ‘real facts’ are as per Filner’s office.

Incidentally, Jammie Wearing Fool reports that Cynthia McKinney, also, was unavailable for comment