That, according to the Beltway press corps' whitewash of the Summer of Hate.

Now from KTLA [emphasis added]:

A 65-year-old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m.

About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.

A witness from the scene says a man was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side when he got into an altercation with the 65-year-old, who opposes health care reform.

The 65-year-old was apparently aggressive and hit the other man, who then retaliated by biting off his attacker's pinky, according to Karoli from DrumsnWhistles.

The man took his finger and walked to Los Robles hospital for treatment.

From a blogger's eyewitness account:

However, there is no question that [65-year-old] Orange Shirt guy was aching to fight, was willing to pick a fight, and certainly didn't care who he fought with. He chose people who were shorter than he, and he used his voice, his body, his body language and his height to intimidate them.

But remember, the mini-mobs aren't looking for a fight this summer. They're just being “noisy.”

UPDATED: Right-wing bloggers are all excited about this story and how it supposedly shows how violent liberal activists are. But wouldn't you know, they conveniently leave out the fact that it was the mini-mob member who, according to eyewitness accounts, initiated the assault.

Apparently when health care reform supporters are beaten by mini-mob members, they're just supposed to take it.