...Brian Miller called on Obama to "lead the effort to stop the blame" after the shooting, responsibility for which he says has been unfairly placed on the shoulders of Republicans and the right.
...
OK, Mr. Miller. We'll stop the blame when you manage to put a cork in Sarah's mouth... to stop her undeniably violent rhetoric not only on her web site (crosshair targets on congressional districts? give me a break!) but at political rallies. Oh, and put a stop to incidents like these in a list compiled by Rachel Slajda:
Robert Lowry, a Republican challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event in October. The event was at a gun range, and Lowry shot at a human-shaped target that had Wasserman Schulz's initials written next to it. He later said it was a "mistake."
and
Stephen Broden, a Republican challenger to Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), in late October said that violent revolution is "on the table."
and
Dale Peterson, Republican candidate for agricultural commissioner of Alabama, ran an ad in May which he posed with a rifle and declared, "I'll name names and take no prisoners." He lost the primary.
and
Erstwhile Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) found herself in June defending comments she had made six months earlier about the Second Amendment.
"People are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying, my goodness, what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you, the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out," she said.
and
In March 2009, [Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)] said on a radio show: "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax, because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us having a revolution every now and then is a good thing. And the people -- we the people -- are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country."
and
Another one from 2009: Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) told Politico that he hunts Democrats. Asked about the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, he said, "We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition."
and on and on and on; read the linked post.
Ms. Slajda has on her list exactly one Democrat, who fielded a campaign commercial in which the candidate, Joe Manchin of W. Virginia, shoots... not a person... but a climate change bill.
It is hard to argue seriously that the violent rhetoric is the fault of both sides, or that President Obama has the unilateral power to rein in such threats by candidates not of his own party. And so I say it again: Mr. Miller, Mr. Obama owes you nothing until you put a cork in Sarah's mouth... and the mouths of no fewer than a dozen other Republicans and/or Tea Partiers who exploit the actual or imagined political advantage of urging violent action when speaking to a roused rabble. Get your own house in order!
AFTERTHOUGHT: Jane Hamsher has it just right:
When you realize you’re pouring gasoline on an already volatile situation you stop. They didn’t. It’s beyond ideology. It’s stupid and reckless behavior, and there’s no reason to do it when you realize you’re just egging people on who are already stepping over the boundaries into lawlessness.
Indeed.
And now that idiot Palin crapping on about blood libels. FFS
ReplyDeletejams, of all the things that make me embarrassed to be an American in the eyes of the world, few exceed Sarah Palin. She shames us all. She is stupid, greedy, self-centered and willing to lie about anything. Moreover, she manifests terrible judgment in almost every response. What more could one ask of a candidate for (vice) president?
ReplyDeleteWell she does make old J Danforth look like a titan of intellect
ReplyDeletejams, when I think of the possibility of a President Sarah Palin, I Quayle at the thought.
ReplyDelete