Political road rage southern style

Yep, it happened rite chere in Ten-uh-see - not that this state is immune from the ugliness that is sweeping the country.

Mark Duren was driving his 10-year-old daughter home from school when a big SUV pulled up behind his car and began honking non-stop. The driver kept gesturing toward Duren's right bumper and his Obama/Biden '08 sticker.

Duren proceeded through an intersection and headed toward his house. When he looked out the rear-view mirror, the SUV was accelerating with the driver still giving him the international sign language and pointing at the bumper sticker.

The driver, 70-year-old Harry Weisiger, bashed Duren's car directly over the Obama sticker. Duren stopped his car, got out and tried to calm his frighted daughter.

But Weisiger wasn't finished. He rammed the car a second time and began pushing it off the road while the little girl screamed in terror. After a few more shoves, the SUV pulled away. Duren called 911, a neighbor  followed the driver to a nearby grocery store parking lot where he was apprehended by police.

Apparently Wesiger, whose wife died a month ago of brain cancer, was drunk as a skunk.

Duren expressed dismay at the the furious tone of Democrats on blogs and message boards. He (Weisiger) was called a "lunatic, and worse, and began to dig into his background, searching for dirt."

"I believe what he did was terrible, endangering me and my daughter," he said. "But to call this man they don't know a lunatic, it just seems a little bit much. I don't know what spurred his rage … when people drink too much, they do make bad decisions. I know I did not provoke him."

He told the Tennessean:

The anger is bleeding from political discussions into other aspects of society," he said. "I'd like to tell people, look, we can discuss things we disagree about. You don't have to bash some one's car because you disagree with what's on a bumper sticker.

Pretty magnanimous for a man who's been the victim of road rage by an angry, drunken nut case.