Man Arrested for Threatening GOP Representative Ginny Brown-Waite

A man who allegedly left a threatening voicemail for Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a Florida Republican, has been arrested.

Erik Lawrence Pidrman was charged today with leaving a message at Brown-Waite's Florida office last month saying, "Just wanna let you know I have 27 people that are going to make sure that this b**** does not live to see her next term."

After announcing the threat, which came not long after she voted no on the health care reform bill, Brown-Waite said in a statement, "I will find the person who threatened to kill me and ensure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "

TPM reports that Pidrman told the FBI that he is a "blackout alcoholic" who doesn't remember making the call, though he admitted it was his voice on the recording.

In an affidavit posted by TPM, he said he is "sorry and embarrassed" about making the call and that it was likely not related to health care reform but rather the fact that "she wanted to have our American soldiers exhumed from their burial grounds in France."

In a statement after the arrest, Brown-Waite said, "The work that we do in Congress can be controversial, but violence is never the answer."

Members of both political parties have faced threats of violence in recent months, particularly following the divisive health care vote. Former President Bill Clinton suggested today that unchecked extreme rhetoric could lead to in another domestic terrorist attack along the lines of the Oklahoma City bombing fifteen years ago.