Liberal Talk Radio

Yeah yeah, blame it on talk radio*:

Angry telephone calls over her proposal to ban restaurants from using a type of cooking oil blamed for increasing people’s cholesterol levels prompted a New Jersey state senator to close her office early on Friday.

State Senator Ellen Karcher said her Freehold Township office answered about 60 calls from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday protesting her plan to introduce a bill that would forbid New Jersey restaurants to serve food made with trans fats. She said she closed her office at 12:30 p.m.

The ban would prohibit the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which has been in shortening and frying oil for decades. Doctors don’t like trans fat because of its effect on cholesterol levels, and some studies have blamed it for an epidemic of heart disease deaths.

Many calls were threatening, Senator Karcher said.

“They said that I should be pushed off a bridge, that I should be stabbed, that I am a Communist and several other things,” Ms. Karcher said.

Senator Karcher, a Democrat who represents parts of Mercer and Monmouth Counties, said that state police came to the office, escorted two staff workers to their cars and plan to return on Tuesday to investigate calls and taped messages. Monday is Columbus Day, a state holiday.

“People were just really hostile and aggressive,” said Ms. Karcher, partly blaming talk radio discussions for the calls.

. . .

“This was just so out of control,” she said. “The yelling, the hostile tone and what they were saying.”

Senator Karcher plans to introduce the bill on Thursday. She said that she got her idea from New York City officials who recently proposed banning trans fats from city restaurants and food carts.

*By the way, it’s so early 90s to blame talk radio — everyone knows that these days, any politician worth her salt (heh) would be blaming bloggers!