Congress Receiving Death Threats

Tea-Party-Unarmed-This-TimeAs many as ten Congressmen have allegedly received death threats over their votes on health care reform.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats.

The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Capitol Police and sergeant at arms briefed Democrats behind closed doors today about the incidents of violence — the most high profile of which have been toward Democratic Reps. Thomas Perriello of Virginia, Steve Driehaus of Ohio and Louise Slaughter of New York.

Hoyer hinted that Republicans should do more to condemn these threats of violence.  “I would hope that we would join together jointly and make it very clear that none of us condone this kind of activity,” Hoyer told reporters. “And when we see it, we speak out strongly in opposition to it. And I would hope that we would do that going forward.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the majority whip, said Democrats and Republicans should continue to speak out on these threats. “Silence gives consent,” Clyburn said.

But Minority Leader John Boehner already has condemned threats of violence — and sought to explain why people are so angry.  “I know many Americans are angry over this health care bill, and that Washington Democrats just aren’t listening,” Boehner said. “But, as I’ve said, violence and threats are unacceptable. That’s not the American way. We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change. Call your congressman, go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign, make your voice heard — but let’s do it the right way.”

A Republican aide also pointed out that over the years Republican members of Congress received their fair share of death threats during volatile times. Newt Gingrich after the 1994 Republican revolution and the late Henry Hyde during the Clinton impeachment in 1998 both received numerous death threats. And just last month, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) received death threats after his filibuster of unemployment benefits, according to a report in Roll Call.

There have, alas, been some real incidents and some Members are, quite reasonably, frightened:

One Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Phil Hare of Illinois, said he knows several Democrats who have told their spouses to move out of the home districts while the lawmakers are in Washington.   “If this doesn’t get under control in short time, heaven forbid, someone will get hurt,” Hare said.

And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters after a caucus meeting that members who feel in danger would “get attention from the proper authorities.”

Hare is holding eight town hall meetings in his district over the recess and requested that the Capitol Police coordinate with his local police department to provide security. His wife has pleaded with him to cancel the events.   “My wife is home alone, and I’m worried for her,” he said. “I am about to have my first grandchild. I don’t want to have to be worried.”

Incidents are sprouting up all over the country. The gas lines were cut at the house of Virginia Democratic Rep. Thomas Perriello’s brother, near Charlottesville, Va., prompting an FBI investigation. Local police are making routine checks of the home. A tea party activist from southern Virginia posted online the address of Perriello’s brother, thinking it was the lawmaker’s.   Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) had his address posted on the Internet, with a message from a right-wing blogger asking people to show up at Driehaus’s Cincinnati “mansion” to protest his health care vote. A photo of Driehaus’s family appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper ad urging the lawmaker to vote against the health care bill last week.   A brick was thrown through the window of the Democratic Party’s Cincinnati office.   And Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who negotiated the breakthrough on abortion language in the health care bill, has received numerous death threats and faxes with violent images at his office.

Boehner’s message is exactly the right one:  People have a right to be angry when Congress passes laws they don’t like but they don’t have a right to threaten or use violence.  The appropriate response to losing in our political system is to persuade more of your fellow citizens to vote your way and repeal bad laws and pass good ones.   (Although, as Democrats can attest, even winning doesn’t mean you’ll get all of what you want.)

And, unlike Michelle Malkin [actually, Doug Powers blogging at her digs], Dan Riehl, and others, I do think Republican leaders have some responsibility to condemn violence.  No, I don’t think they’re directly responsible for any of it; we don’t yet even know for sure who’s making the threats.  But we’ve had over a year of very heated rhetoric over the dire consequences that would flow from a government takeover of one sixth of the economy, death panels, legislation being rammed through with dirty tricks, and all the rest.   That’s part and parcel of American politics these days and mostly fine.  But, with signs that people are going off the rails evident, it’s time for leaders to calm their followers.

That said, there are “death threats” and there are death threats.  Frustrated yahoos spout off all the time and today’s age of instant, relatively anonymous, communications makes it much easier than in the past.   It’s quite likely that most, if not all, of these threats are hollow.  That doesn’t make them right or make Members receiving them any more comfortable.  But I don’t think we’re reaching a point where mob violence is going to be a serious factor in our politics.

I am, however, less confident in that then I was 24 hours ago.

UPDATE:  See also my follow-up, “Smearing Conservative Bloggers with the Truth,” a reply to Dan Riehl‘s response.

FILED UNDER: Congress, Healthcare Policy, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Patrick T. McGuire says:

    That said, there are “death threats” and there are death threats.

    And many of these “death threats” aren’t death threats at all. Saying to anyone “I hope you die”, or some variation of that theme, is neither a threat nor an act of violence.

    There is a lot of raw anger out here but I have seen very little of any actual violence or threats of violence yet other than claims by the Democrats and, of course, we all know how much you can believe what they say.

  2. john personna says:

    Those of us who are not angry look at the “angry” and shake our heads. It’s one thing to have a footing in reality, a gasp of history.

    It’s another to treat a health care package to the right of Nixon’s as TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it).

    There is a difference between reasonable and unreasonable fears. There is a difference between righteous indignation and irrational anger.

  3. john personna says:

    I would guess, and IANAPP (I am not a pop-psychologist), that the anger and frustration come from a belief in free markets being met by (broadly) failures in free markets.

    Are you better or worse off after 8 years of GWB? If you are worse off, are you ready to question your beliefs, or are you looking for someone, anyone, to be angry at instead?

  4. T S Umbra says:

    “Zhivago Effect and the New World Order”
    http://www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=165959

  5. Joe R. says:

    Boehner’s message is exactly the right one: People have a right to be angry when Congress passes laws they don’t like but they don’t have a right to threaten or use violence. The appropriate response to losing in our political system is to persuade more of your fellow citizens to vote your way and repeal bad laws and pass good ones.

    Is there really no line that a (small-d) democratic government could cross that would justify a violent response? I’m not saying I believe that this is one of those instances, but I would have considered violent response to Japanese American internment or attempts to enforce the old fugitive slave laws to be morally justified. And if you believe that violence is OK in some extreme instances, then your disagreement becomes over what is extreme, not over the principle itself.

  6. floyd says:

    Anybody see “Mars Attacks”… Hilarious!

  7. John Burgess says:

    What’s missing from the reports is the slightest inkling of what those activists in the 60s used to call ‘rat-f*cking’.

    A brick through a window? Who threw it? It would certainly be to a leftist’s benefit if that brick were tagged as coming from a rightist, but unless there’re finger prints or a video, the brick could have come from the leftist. Anonymous phone calls don’t identify the person making a threat nor his political leanings.

    ‘Messing with the Man’ is a pretty simple exercise.

    I do agree, however, than unless things reach a state where armed revolution is truly the only answer, then violence and threats of it need to be curbed.

  8. john personna says:

    Joe, on slavery I think the way history has divided it those who smuggled slaves (etc.) were heroes, those who took up arms (John Brown) were zealots.

    With retrospect, non-violence seems to be appreciated.

  9. kth says:

    In 1968 the elections following the “days of rage” played out quite terribly from the standpoint of the protestors’ goals, as it’s a fairly safe bet that President Hubert Humphrey would not have waited until 1972 to withdraw from Vietnam. I’m not saying the TEA set has matched those excesses yet, but there’s a potentially useful lesson from history which they can choose to heed or not as they see fit.

  10. Ole_Sarge says:

    Not all of the calls, but a couple I think are from the “outside” to smear ‘everyone’ that was against this as a bunch of “racists” and “violent people.” Nearly all of us with a connection to ‘tea parties’ tend to “pickup all the trash” than cause vandalism. What does breaking a window prove anyways?

    No, I don’t doubt that many of us are that angered, but we temper emotion with legal actions. Not go out on a rampage and trash neighborhoods. No, I really don’t believe any of ‘us’ are doing it at all.

    Remember that to the current appointed leadership in Homeland Security, the “Right” is a bigger threat, those that are anti-abortion, veterans, and the like. We ARE the Threat, not a religion that in it’s ‘holy book’ is told to behead unbelievers.

    Those that come out in demonstrations supporting LIMITED government, are a bigger danger, that those that preach ‘jihad’ against the West.

    The world has indeed turned upside down.

  11. john personna says:

    Those that come out in demonstrations supporting LIMITED government, are a bigger danger, that those that preach ‘jihad’ against the West.

    You’re bringing the crazy a little bit there. We have troops in the field fighting jihad, AFAIK, none deployed against the Tea Party.

  12. mpw280 says:

    And yet again we have to trot out alinsky and look at how republicans are held to a higher standard than democrats. When democrats were repeatedly making death threats against Pres Bush did the dem leadership get trotted out by the press and have to make statements, other than to say those are just the fringe of the party. Nope. The dems laid this egg and now they don’t like that it is hatching and the thing that is hatching isn’t what they thought it would be. Man up, you pissed off a substantial portion of the population with your abuse of accounting, backroom dealing, bribe passing, and total lack of care about what your constituents wanted with this jam through of a crappy bill that will bankrupt this country. Now you get to ride the tiger. Are the threats coming from your home district? Then maybe the people who voted for you are the ones that are the ones threatening you, so if democrats are being threatened then voters of democratic persuasion may be the ones threatening, yet its only republicans/tea party that are singled out. Alinsky was right, make it so someone has to live up to an unobtainable standard and you can blame anything on them. mpw

  13. Steve Plunk says:

    One brick and one propane line on BBQ grill. So far that’s all the violence that it takes to make these congressmen shake in fear? This is the definition of right wing hate? Talk about making mountains out of molehills.

    The backlash will come in November and it will be civilized.

  14. UlyssesUnbound says:

    It looks like we have a new entry into the zelsdord/G.A. Hall of Crazy. Welcome Sarge.

    I wonder if ‘attacks’ like this would have happened even if Palin, Malkin and the like hadn’t stirred the pot with their talk of death panel, baby killing, socialism, and all the other crazy labels the far-right pasted onto this debate. My guess is yes. To me, elected reps getting anonymous death threats and broken windows seems not that out of the ordinary. I don’t condone or support it from either side, but it seems like something that happens to people in the spot light. Just like celebrities get stalkers.

    I do think leaders on the right should condemn it (which they have), but they shouldn’t be blamed for it. If you are crazy enough to turn to violence for a cause, you don’t need outside motivation to do it.

    P.S. Forgive me if this is posted as one long sentence. My blackberry is not the best at using wordpress forms.

  15. Eric Florack says:

    James:

    Boehner’s message is exactly the right one: People have a right to be angry when Congress passes laws they don’t like but they don’t have a right to threaten or use violence.

    Plunk:

    One brick and one propane line on BBQ grill. So far that’s all the violence that it takes to make these congressmen shake in fear?

    First, I will echo some of what I’ve seen here; I doubt the majority of what is being called “death threats” really are such; I suggest that what’s happening here is there using a relatively minor comment and blowing it out of proportion so as to use it like they would any other tool; to tar their political opponents with.

    Meanwhile, I have cited over the past nine years or so that my site has been online, many instances of left on right threats and overt violence, which brought none of the condemnation from the left that we’re now seeing from the all too ready to apologize right. Why is that, do you suppose?

    That said, there’s one additional point needs be made. That of the question of the legitimacy of such acts.

    Mind, I make no judgments here nor calls to violence, but I will ask the question; I look at our own American revolution and the violent acts which gave birth to this nation. And, I wonder; at what point would such actions be considered legitimate, today? Would in fact our revolution be considered as legit today? I’ve seen many who think this nation should never have been founded while they reap the benefits of the violent overthrow of Brit rule.

    Consider the words of Lincoln, in his first inaugural address:

    This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

    Be careful when you answer the question about how legitimate an act of violence against the government is; You will, perhaps, in your answer inadvertently delegitimize the founding of our nation. Or, perhaps not so inadvertently, some of you.

  16. floyd says:

    “”I do think Republican leaders have some responsibility to condemn violence.””
    “”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
    This borders on comical, Americans are fed-up with all politicians! Besides they are SUPPOSED to listen to US, not the other way around.

    Let’s see… take people’s money under false pretenses with the promise of great returns, squander some on those previously promised, in order to stay out of trouble, and pocket the rest.
    Is it Congress, or is it Madoff?
    Hint… Madoff used only deception without gunpoint enforcement.

    The sign, in the hands of a citizen,represents the ONLY purpose of the second amendment,and is clearly a reminder that our Constitution has last resort enforcement provisions.
    Of course, the same sign is likely to appear on the letterhead of the 16000 new IRS agents!

  17. Zelsdorf Ragshaft III says:

    Ulyssesboundup, F*CK YOU! Got it? I’ll match my 143 IQ to your 79 any day. What you progressives miss is the FACT tea party people are Americans who oppose government tyranny. Sodomites like yourself were indoctrinated to believe in the failed principles of men like Marx, Hegel and Lenin. When I went to school, we learned of John Stuart Mill, Jefferson and Lincoln. If we get angry because those who represent us fail to do so, anger is a proper response. If it continues, I would not be surprised if violence became more commonplace. I read a story about Democrats in Texas attempting to pass a state income tax. Seems shots were fired through the windows of he capitol building. The subject never came up again. U, have someone explain that to you.

  18. sam says:

    @Zelsdorf:

    I read a story about Democrats in Texas attempting to pass a state income tax. Seems shots were fired through the windows of he capitol building. The subject never came up again.

    I had a dream the other night that Zelsdorf had committed suicide. When I asked how, I was told, “He put a bullet through his brain.” “Damned fine shot that,” I said.

  19. Eric Florack says:

    Advocating violence, are we, Sam?

    For shame, sir.

  20. john personna says:

    Shorter Tea Partiers at OTB: “our paranoid delusions justify the violence we almost but not quite endorse.”

  21. john personna says:

    Sam, if you are dreaming about Zelsdorf you need a break.

  22. floyd says:

    “”Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them””
    William Charles Ayers

    Why did he bomb the Pentagon?
    Referring to his father. he explains…

    …””He’s stuck in other patterns as well…You need a haircut, he says automatically, and, You’d better cover that tattoo in front of Mother,and now he wants to know why I bombed the Pentagon.””

    Where’s the outrage when this felonious little child of privilege has the ear of our President, and not the citizen holding a sign that is merely a reminder of the power of the Constitution.

  23. john personna says:

    The difference Floyd, and this shouldn’t be too hard for you to grasp, is that Democrats never tried to empower or use the “Ayers movement.”

    Certainly no one here center or left ever said they were an Ayers supporter.

    And yet we’ve got a half-dozen Tea Party nutballs saying it’s ok for them because it was OK for Ayers.

    Geez, look at yourselves.

  24. Wayne says:

    I miss the GW Bush days or at least until the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and drove the economy down.

    IMO the anger is not one bill or so call losing one election. It is the path this country is on, big government and rights of so call “majorities” over rights of the individuals. So call “moderate” Republicans have their fair share of blame toward this socialist path as well.

    When this country was founded, it was unique in the value it place on individual rights and liberties. The constitution was written in such a way as to protect individual rights. Over time these rights have been greatly eroded.

    Many people even many who post here think simple majority should rule. If you can get a simple majority to rule that all white males on their 40th birthday must walk around town nude with a sign apologizing to minorities then it is OK. Any rule by a simple majority is OK. It is not. That type of thinking has resulted in many revolutions. Many revolutions have been fought and won by a small fraction of the population.

  25. anjin-san says:

    Shorter Tea Partiers at OTB: “our paranoid delusions justify the violence we almost but not quite endorse.”

    I see you’ve met bithead…

  26. Wayne says:

    One more thing, people should express their anger instead of always holding it until they explode. However IMO the left has done it way to often and the right has not done it enough. I think it foolish to disregard people’s anger when those particular people have a record of not expressing their anger.

  27. Eric Florack says:

    I see you’ve met bithead…

    I see neither of you dares address the points I made. Not that I expected you would have the courage.

  28. Drew says:
  29. michael reynolds says:

    I’m confused. Is it the no pre-existing conditions thing that requires a violent overthrow of the government? Or is it the insurance exchanges?

  30. Steve Plunk says:

    John p, No one is saying it’s ok. First of all this is nothing and second of all some of us are saying it’s not unexpected. No one is saying violence should be condoned. Quit making things up.

    What we are saying is Ayers is now accepted into polite society by the Dems while they cry about a brick rather than a bomb. Neither is okay but some perspective is seriously lacking.

    This is all misdirection by the Left to try and diffuse the anger over a health care bill few wanted and only passed through bribes, intimidation, and trickery. Just the way we like our representative democracy to work.

  31. Eric Florack says:

    “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
    wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …

    And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them.

    What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
    time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thms Jefferson

    I happened across this quote while looking up something else. It amazes me as I compare this quote to the whining going on about violent acts against the Democrats, that those same Democrats still to this day hold Jefferson to be iconic for their party. Particularly given how obvious, given their whining, that they don’t understand him at all.

    And now, we see the office of Eric Cantor in Richmond got shot up last night.

    Let the leftist waffling begin.

  32. floyd says:

    john personna;
    Your condescension notwithstanding, should an utter nonsensical lie be difficult to grasp?
    To paraphrase The Bard…
    What’s in a name? that which we call a turd
    By any other name would smell as foul;
    Go ahead, “Doff the name”… the scent remains

    Thanks for your weak disclaimer though

    BTW, your choice of moniker here is excellent on several levels, you must be flush with pride!

  33. floyd says:

    Michael;
    Amazingly, we agree once again, you certainly are.

  34. john personna says:

    John p, No one is saying it’s ok. First of all this is nothing and second of all some of us are saying it’s not unexpected. No one is saying violence should be condoned. Quit making things up.

    People are sailing as close as they can on that one. mpw’s post sure reads like an endorsement (“Now you get to ride the tiger.”). See also Zelsdorf (“If it continues, I would not be surprised if violence became more commonplace.”)

    What we are saying is Ayers is now accepted into polite society by the Dems while they cry about a brick rather than a bomb. Neither is okay but some perspective is seriously lacking.

    Complete BS. I have quotes from Republican leaders supporting the Tea Party, and wanting to take over Tea Party leadership. Show me one Democrat endorsing Ayers or bringing him into any campaign.

    About 50 leaders of the grass-roots “tea party” movement will meet in Washington on Tuesday with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele and other top GOP operatives to discuss campaign strategies and conservative principles.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021502211.html

  35. john personna says:

    That Washington Post quote doesn’t actually serve my recollection (someone in the GOP hoping to own the Tea Party by the next election.)

    More stories actually point the other way in influence:

    Sarah Palin to tea parties: ‘Take over’ GOP

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33602.html

    Funny loop that one, eh? Palin has an Ayers link (as critic) and a tea party link (as endorser of their power).

  36. Eric Florack says:

    Show me one Democrat endorsing Ayers or bringing him into any campaign.

    Do you suppose we’ll ever see Obama condemning him?

  37. john personna says:

    Do you suppose we’ll ever see Obama condemning him?

    Way to bring the crazy.

    Ayers is history, toast, a non-player. All of us can ignore him. He will not influence our elections, our government, or our lives.

    He only has currency now as a bogey man for the right. When you desperately need something to fear you’ll dig someone up who did something 40 years ago, right?

  38. john personna says:

    BTW, I’m not hesitant to call 70’s vintage Ayers a dangerous nutjob. He seems to confine his interests to Chicago these days. I’m fine with letting him be their problem. He certainly has no import for me out here in California.

  39. anjin-san says:

    I see neither of you dares address the points I made.

    The point is that the men who were at Valley Forge would probably puke if they encountered you. You are not even a sunshine patriot, you are a sitting in a heated living room with plenty of food in the fridge and no risk to yourself “patriot”. You incessantly call for new wars, which you will sit out while others fight and die. Now you are trying to work a call for domestic terrorism into the margins of your comments, because you do not have the nads to just come out and say it.

  40. UlyssesUnbound says:

    I’ll match my 143 IQ

    Every comment you’ve made and your degree from a 2 year city college, and your support of Sarah Palin undermines this statement.

    Not that attendees from 2 year colleges are necessarily stupid (indeed many of my coworkers with community college degrees are bonafide geniuses), just that someone with such a high IQ as Zels-man should gain entrance to, and sail through, a much tougher school.

    And just for your information, my IQ of 199. Since I’ve stated it and have no way of proving it, I’ll assume you believe its true, as that seems to be your M.O. here at OTB.

    Sodomites like yourself…

    OUCH! Yeah, you stung me with that one. I engage icky sex.

    I don’t deny any FACT that tea baggers are American. Indeed, I never see anyone but the most stereotypical American among them (White, male, midwestern or southern accent, American flag t-shirt).

    we learned of John Stuart Mill, Jefferson and Lincoln.

    As a unitarian, and someone with a degree in engineering, political science, and philosophy, I actually identify quite a bit with those three (although for Mills, more so on his contributions to the scientific method, rather than his political musings. His musings, while correct, had already been laid out by more eloquent predecessors).

  41. Eric Florack says:

    Ayers is history, toast, a non-player. All of us can ignore him. He will not influence our elections, our government, or our lives.

    Right.
    WHo was it who ghost-wrote the autobiography of Obama prior to the last election, again?

    And do you really think he’s the only one?

    And Anjin-Dim: You still seem unwiling to address the point raised. I’ll ask the question of you directly… let’s see if you have the courage you claim:

    At what point is violence against the government, legit?

  42. Steve Plunk says:

    john p, You’re still not showing us anyone condoning the violence. You are simply making that up. “Sailing close”? What sort of weasel wording is that? Endorsing the Tea Party is endorsing violence? Sarah Palin calling on the Tea Party to influence or take over the Republican party is endorsing violence? Come back when you have something of substance.

  43. Eva says:

    “Boehner’s message is exactly the right one.”

    I would agree, if I thought he could be taken seriously. But TPM is reporting that Boehner told Rep. Driehaus he’d be “a dead man” if he voted for HCR. How, without Boehner acknowledging or taking responsibility for his own role in ratcheting up the violent tone of the proceedings, am I supposed to believe he is being remotely genuine? He’s just another politician passing the buck after helping to light the match.

  44. anjin-san says:

    I’ll ask the question of you directly

    are you still working on the assumption that anyone takes you seriously?? poor bitsy.

  45. TangoMan says:

    Death threats directed at Republicans:

    Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he’s received “threatening e-mails”

    Another incident:

    U.S. Capitol Police are investigating a threatening voicemail left in the office of Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), her chief of staff said Thursday.

    Schmidt’s office was left a voicemail late Wednesday night in what appears to be the first instance of a Republican lawmaker being targeted for their healthcare vote.

    I think that Obama and Pelosi need to stand up and condemn the Democratic Party for being bloodlusting barbarians and they should disavow any support from Democrats. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

  46. Eric Florack says:

    are you still working on the assumption that anyone takes you seriously??

    Do I call this stuff?? LOL.
    Blow away, coward.

    I think that Obama and Pelosi need to stand up and condemn the Democratic Party for being bloodlusting barbarians and they should disavow any support from Democrats. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    Well, yeah, about that… why is it we assume it’s tea party types that made these supposed death threats to Democrat members of the Congress? Consider that Stupak must have annoyed at least a few pro-life Democrats with his bait and switch. No, it’s the Tea Parties, eh?

    Yeah, right.

  47. john personna says:

    john p, You’re still not showing us anyone condoning the violence. You are simply making that up. “Sailing close”?

    Maybe that’s because “condone” was never my word?

  48. john personna says:

    BTW, if Ayers wasn’t to direct the eye away, and to claim some kind of “good for the goose, good for the gander” thing … why the heck is Ayers in this thread?

    I don’t think Ayers fanboys here “condone” violence, they just want to misdirect away from it with a quick “hey look, it’s Ayers” shout.

  49. sam says:

    And now, we see the office of Eric Cantor in Richmond got shot up last night.

    Well this is what the Richmond paper is reporting:

    The Richmond Police Department is investigating an act of vandalism agsinst the Reagan Building, 25 E. Main St., where Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, has a campagn office.

    Police said a first floor window was struck by a bullet at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday. The building was not occupied, police said. A preliminary investigation determined that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window at a downward direction, landing about a foot from the window. The bullet had enough force to break the windowpane but not penetrate the window blinds, according to a news release.

    Looks like someone shot a bullet into the air, for some reason, and it came down and struck the window, weakly. I’m not sure that really counts as an attack.

  50. Eric Florack says:

    why the heck is Ayers in this thread?

    Who was it who asked about proof of Obama being a socialist? Ayers, I suppose got brought up as an example of who it is Obama surrounds himself with.

  51. pylon says:

    I have seen very little of any actual violence or threats of violence yet other than claims by the Democrats and, of course, we all know how much you can believe what they say.

    Cut gas lines aren’t enough for you?

    A brick through a window? Who threw it? It would certainly be to a leftist’s benefit if that brick were tagged as coming from a rightist, but unless there’re finger prints or a video, the brick could have come from the leftist. Anonymous phone calls don’t identify the person making a threat nor his political leanings.

    Occam’s Razor

    When democrats were repeatedly making death threats against Pres Bush

    example, please

    Show me one Democrat endorsing Ayers or bringing him into any campaign.

    Do you suppose we’ll ever see Obama condemning him?

    “Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence” Obama spokesman Bill Burton

    oh, and: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/he_lied_about_bill_ayers.html

  52. sam says:

    @Eric

    Who was it who asked about proof of Obama being a socialist? Ayers, I suppose got brought up as an example of who it is Obama surrounds himself with.

    “Ah c’mon man, he’s not a idiot.” “He is too–he hangs out with Eric Florack.” “Oh.”

  53. TangoMan says:

    example, please

    Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Leftists made a snuff film about assassinating President Bush.

    Bush-Cheney offices were ransacked. Others were shot up.

  54. anjin-san says:

    Who was it who asked about proof of Obama being a socialist? Ayers, I suppose got brought up as an example of who it is Obama surrounds himself with.

    Of course, Obama has also “surrounded himself” with Paul Volcker and Warren Buffet. You know there is dumb, and then there is industrial strength Bithead dumb…

  55. anjin-san says:

    Do I call this stuff?? LOL.
    Blow away, coward..

    I’m sorry skippy, but not wanting to play patty-cake with you is called having a life, not cowardice. And we still remember how hard you patted yourself on the back for “calling” the Democratic civil war that never happened in ’08 🙂

    Interesting that you should evoke Jefferson though, even as conservatives are hard at work trying to erase him from the history books.

  56. Eric Florack says:

    Of course, Obama has also “surrounded himself” with Paul Volcker and Warren Buffet.

    Nice attempt at dodging the truth. C for effort. Didn’t work, though.

    I’m sorry skippy, but not wanting to play patty-cake with you

    You don’t dare to answer the question because you don’t like the answer you’d be forced to give, or else you know you’d talk yourself into a corner.

    Bottom line is you’re a coward.

    Of course you could actually answer the question and prove me wrong. But you won’t…

  57. Dodd says:

    Apparently last week was just the beginning of Dan Riehl’s descent into loony fringe status. Now you’re a “useful idiot,” James.

  58. SavageView says:

    The last time I recall posting on this site (or, indeed, reading it) was when it was shamelessly pushing the story about a McCain volunteer claiming to have been assaulted by a black guy, who carved a ‘B’ into her cheek. The coverage here was breathless. At long last, a McCain breakthrough! The story turned out to be a wee bit false.

    Now the commenters here are breathless: Cantor’s office was shot at! No doubt some gun-welding, Jew-hating Leftist! Doesn’t sound like it to me.

  59. Dodd says:

    The last time I recall posting on this site (or, indeed, reading it) was when it was shamelessly pushing the story about a McCain volunteer claiming to have been assaulted by a black guy, who carved a ‘B’ into her cheek. The coverage here was breathless. At long last, a McCain breakthrough! The story turned out to be a wee bit false.

    OTB “shamelessly” pushed the Ashley Todd mutliation story by posting a single, four sentence paragraph, three sentences of which expressed significant doubt as to the veracity of the story, followed by three short updates/responses.

    You fail at the Internet, sir.

  60. eric florack says:

    Dodd:
    Indeed.
    How to be a ‘currently topical’ blog without mentioning what is currently topical?

  61. Drew says:

    Bitsy seems to be doing a fine job bitch slapping the usual suspects.

    Odo –

    Uh, I mean, John Personna (or are you still lying about that?) Ayers is more influential than you care to admit.

  62. floyd says:

    UlyssesUnbound;
    You are a RIOT! [lol] I haven’t read such comedic script since Douglas Adams!You should change your moniker to something more fitting…
    Say! How about “Marvin, the Paranoid Android”, or just plain “Marvin” for short, all the really “smart” readers are bound to get your drift!

    Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a “brain the size of a planet” which he is seldom given the chance to use. Indeed, the true horror of Marvin’s existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect.
    Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human (or 30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress) though this is, if anything, a vast underestimation.
    Apparently, the best conversation he’d had was over 40 million years ago, and that was with a coffee machine.
    See?
    BTW; The old thermometer here on my desk has 15 degrees recognized,24 if you count Celsius.

  63. anjin-san says:

    You don’t dare to answer the question

    Have you ever noticed that when you try to be insulting and dismissive, you just sound pompous and whiny?

    But Drew, our very own Donald Trump lite, seems to have a bit of a man crush of some kind on you, so perhaps you two can have a little slap fest of your own…

  64. UlyssesUnbound says:

    Floyd…

    WTF?

  65. ian cormac says:

    We need just a bit of proof, but facts don’t seem to matter as Amy Bishop, Joseph Stack, and John Bedell, seem to have manifested themselves as lone wolves, with ties to the left, Kos, Huff Po fringe.

    Ayers found that academia, was a much more apt view
    to transforming society than explosives, the Gramscian route to power. This administration is
    an illustration of that temporary triumph

  66. An Interested Party says:

    I look at our own American revolution and the violent acts which gave birth to this nation. And, I wonder; at what point would such actions be considered legitimate, today?

    If you can find circumstances in our country now that are the same as circumstances in the Thirteen Colonies under British rule, do share with the rest of us…but, be careful with your response, as you might inadvertently delegitimize yourself, depending on what similarities you might think exist…

    Meanwhile, it is so delicious to observe some conservatives huff and puff as they think that others are trying to tie particular Tea Party loons around their collective neck…it just isn’t fair, is it? As we see names like Amy Bishop and William Ayers trotted out again as part of some kind of feeble defense, it’s funny how that works out when the shoe is on the other foot…

  67. ggr says:

    The hypocrisy of both parties is the most interesting aspect of this. When Bush was in power, public opinion was strongly against the war, and the democrats were happy to point out all the demonstrations and unrest aimed at Bush, while the republicans basically said those demonstrating were being unpatriotic, and should be ignored.

    Now Obama is in power, and its the democrats who say the demonstrators (the Tea Partiers) are dangerous and being bad citizens, whereas the republicans have suddenly decided that the government should be run according to public opinion.

    Most people have no trouble remembering this, even if the two parties themselves seem to have no memory of what their previous opinions on the value of public unrest was.

  68. anjin-san says:

    democrats who say the demonstrators

    Total crap. Demonstrating about issues you feel strongly about is a fine thing. Veiled threats of violence and actual violence are something else entirely. I despise Bush, but anyone who threatens his person, either back when he was President, or now, should go to prison for a very, very long time.

  69. michael reynolds says:

    Ayers is more influential than you care to admit.

    I used to think you were not a complete ninny. I apologize. You are complete.

  70. michael reynolds says:

    TangoBrimelow:

    I think that Obama and Pelosi need to stand up and condemn the Democratic Party for being bloodlusting barbarians and they should disavow any support from Democrats. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    On behalf of all Democrats, I apologize for inciting unknown persons to fire shots randomly in the air, somewhere more or less in the vicinity of Eric Cantor’s Richmond office.

    It’s time for us liberals to take a good, long look at our support for randomly-fired, skyward-directed gunfire.

  71. sam says:

    @Drew

    Bitsy seems to be doing a fine job bitch slapping the usual suspects.

    Snicker. Perhaps it’s time for a reprint:

    Bithead petitions Ares, God of War

    Ares: Who’s next?

    Aresan flunky: Bithead of Earth, Your Ferociousness, he seeks…

    Ares: Zeus’s Nutsac!!! That guy again? Wasn’t he just here last week wanting to invade, what was it?

    Aresan flunky: Catalina Island, sire, off the coast of Hollywood. Well, Los Angeles, actually, but…

    Ares: How’d that go?

    Aresan Flunky: In spite of all your aid, sire, not well. Their navagation was off. They attacked Santa Cruz Island some ninety miles to the north and were repulsed by goat herders.

    Ares: Ah, crap. But I guess I should see him. It’s batshit crazoids like him that keep me in ambrosia, you know. Send him in.

    Bithead (bowing low): Hail Ares! Lord of bloodlust, lord of battle, lord of slaughter, lord of…

    Ares: Yeah, yeah. What now?

    Bithead: Oh lord of destruction, I come before you to request your aid in my continuing war against the evils of liberalism, islamism, hightaxism, and democratism. I intend to strike at the heart by attacking Malibu. It is there that the plots are…

    Ares: Wait a minute. Malibu?

    Bithead: Yes, Your Calamitousness, it…

    Ares: Where Pam Anderson lives?

    Bithead: Uh, I think so, sire.

    Ares: That’s a nonstarter.

    Bithead: Eh? I mean, What, sire?

    Ares: Find another place to attack.

    Bithead: But my troops are at the ready. They’re provisioned for 3 days hard combat. We’ve stockpiled cases of spf 30 sunblock and stuff.

    Ares: Find another place.

    Bithead: Ummmm. Santa Barbara?

    Ares: Kathy Ireland lives there.

    Bithead: Martha’s Vineyard?

    Ares: Forget it. Meg Ryan, Carly Simon

    Bithead: Geez, Golly, … How about Fire Island?

    Ares: Fire Island? Don’t you have a summer house there? Bought behind a dummy corporation?

    Bithead (shocked): How’d you find that out?

    Aresan Flunky: The Lord of Vastation has a superb intelligence service.

    Bithead: Sire, I am prepared to make the sacrifice.

    Ares: Hmmm, yes. Sacrifice. Well, you’ll still have the condo in Provincetown. Ok, Fire Island it is. (Aside to Flunky: Do you think he’ll be leading the assault from the rear? Is that the right preposition? Flunky: ‘with’ sir, I believe, ‘with’. Ares: Ok, ‘with’)

    Bithead: Many thanks, oh lord. (Bows and scrapes out.)

    Ares to Flunky: On second thought, the next time that dude shows up, you tell him I’m at a World of Warcraft convention signing autographs. What a pain in the ass.

    Aresan Flunky: Very droll, sire, very droll.

    Ares: Who’s up now?

    Aresan Flunky: Dick Cheney

    Ares: Deadeye Dick. Excellent. Maybe he’s got a new hunting story. That last one was a doozy. Send him in.

  72. john personna says:

    What Drew (of the first name only), are you going to give my name and address so that someone can cut my gas line?

    I have never lied, I use an honest JPersonna.

    (Really weird that you think “Bitsy” is making sense here.)

  73. john personna says:

    BTW, I think the correct answer to “Ayers is more influential than you care to admit.” is “prove it” .. and you know, do it without simply venting paranoia.

    Show how many people endorse his terrorism or his goals. We know from pylon (doh! an alias) that then-Senator Obama did take time out to state the obvious, that he “strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence”

  74. Eric Florack says:

    The ghost-written autobiography would be a start. And the number of radical leftists who have been involved in violent acts against our country, who now are in positions of power in the Obama administration (I list several here) would seem to confirm the trend.

  75. Eric Florack says:

    Have you ever noticed that when you try to be insulting and dismissive, you just sound pompous and whiny?

    Have you noticed you’re still not addressing the issue? Just so you know… The rest of us have.

    I used to think you were not a complete ninny. I apologize. You are complete.

    Have you ever noticed that when you try to be insulting and dismissive, you just sound pompous and whiny?

    (Chuckle)

  76. john personna says:

    Eric, up above I asked “why the heck is Ayers in this thread?”

    You replied “Who was it who asked about proof of Obama being a socialist?”

    If you review the thread, the answer is actually no one. You were the first to use the word socialist here … for me this discussion has been about the decision to simply condemn the violence, or not.

    I think the conservatives who simply condemned the violence and left it at that came out of this far better than those who branched to Ayers. (If you look back you’ll see that Floyd first brought Ayers, and his bombing, into the discussion.)

  77. pylon says:

    Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Leftists made a snuff film about assassinating President Bush.

    Bush-Cheney offices were ransacked. Others were shot up.

    Puhlease. The “snuff film” used a hypothetical assassination as a starting point and was about the police state that would follow. Isuspect you have no real clue whether the British director and producer is a “leftist” or not.

    And saying offices were ransacked and shot up doesn’t make it so. I guess I should have clarified: an example with some substantive evidence.

  78. anjin-san says:

    Have you ever noticed that when you try to be insulting and dismissive, you just sound pompous and whiny?

    Have you ever noticed that the only time you sound clever or witty is when you steal other peoples lines?

  79. Eric Florack says:

    Have you ever noticed that the only time you sound clever or witty is when you steal other peoples lines?

    Coming up with nonsense like this is a lot easier than answering difficult questions, isn’t it?

  80. An Interested Party says:

    The ghost-written autobiography would be a start.

    Some proof of that claim would be a better start…

    And the number of radical leftists who have been involved in violent acts against our country, who now are in positions of power in the Obama administration (I list several here) would seem to confirm the trend.

    All those people have been accused of having views you don’t like, not of committing any violent acts against our country…

  81. Eric Florack says:

    Some proof of that claim would be a better start…

    (sigh) Next?

    All those people have been accused of having views you don’t like, not of committing any violent acts against our country…

    So, Ayers didn’t bomb anyone, didn’t kill a cop, etc?

  82. TangoMan says:

    I guess I should have clarified: an example with some substantive evidence.

    “Kill Bush” protesters. A fairly comprehensive compendium.

    Ransacked Bush-Cheney offices:

    A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.

  83. TangoMan says:

    Spraying bullets at Bush-Cheney offices:

    An unknown suspect fired several shots into the Bearden office of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign Tuesday morning.

    The headquarters are located at 4618 Kingston Pike, next to Nouveau Classics and in the same shopping plaza as Long’s Drugstore.

    According to Knoxville Police Department (KPD) officers on the scene Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am.

    One shot shattered the glass in the front door and the other cracked the glass in another of the front doors.

    Burning swastikas into lawns:

    Someone burned an 8-foot-by-8-foot Nazi swastika on a home’s lawn near where Bush-Cheney signs were posted. The vandals used grass killer to spray the symbol.

    Several nearby homes were vandalized — all were within a two-block radius on the West Side, near Ice Age Trail, News 3 reported.

    State Republican Party officials claim it’s the latest in a series of desperate acts by Democrats.

    Homeowners are angry, but resolute in what they plan to do next.

    “I just cannot believe that someone would take the liberty to do this,” said homeowner Rob Schaeffer. “We’re appalled that someone would choose to destroy our property because they don’t believe in our political views. My signs are going right back in the yard. This is my property. We live here. We have rights.”

  84. TangoMan says:

    2500 Leftists march on Rumfeld’s home preparing to charge him with war crimes:

    At least 2500 people rallied and marched against the war in Iraq. The march ended at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s House where a list of charges for war crimes was left on his gate.

  85. TangoMan says:

    Craig Kilborn, on his TV show, puts up a photo of President George Bush and the caption reads “Snipers Wanted.”

    The Smoking Gun has the details.

  86. pylon says:

    At least you provided some evidence.

  87. pylon says:

    better than the ghostwriting crapola

  88. pylon says:

    Now perhaps you can show the examples of Democratic leaders saying that Bush/Cheney and Rumsfeld “brought it on themselves”.

  89. An Interested Party says:

    (sigh) Next?

    That’s your proof? Speculation and innuendo? Sigh indeed…

    So, Ayers didn’t bomb anyone, didn’t kill a cop, etc?

    You originally wrote,

    And the number of radical leftists who have been involved in violent acts against our country, who now are in positions of power in the Obama administration (I list several here) would seem to confirm the trend.

    Do tell us all what position of power that Bill Ayers holds in the Obama Administration…

  90. Eric Florack says:

    That’s your proof? Speculation and innuendo? Sigh indeed…

    Ya know, if you’d have just started out with “I don’t care what you’ve got, my minds made up” we’d ahve saved a lotta time.

    Do tell us all what position of power that Bill Ayers holds in the Obama Administration…

    I’d call writing the book as he did a rather foundational position, given he’d likely not have been elected without it. More, are we really to assume this guy has no influence at all?

    Please. Let’s draw some comparisons, shall we? For laughs, let’s replace the names Obama and Ayers with Bush and David Duke. Let’s say Duke and Bush are long time friends, even though Bush says Duke is just a guy in the neighborhood… etc etc, as in Obama/Ayers.

    Somehow I suspect you’d be spending a great deal less time scoffing, being rather on the front lines.

  91. anjin-san says:

    Coming up with nonsense like this is a lot easier than answering difficult questions, isn’t it?

    Perhaps you would be taken seriously if you could come up with something other then speculation in a third-rate paper that Ayeres was Obama’s ghostwriter, since it seems to be one of your core beliefs.

    I guess after Obama’s recent historic legislative victory, you need some straw to cling to.

  92. Eric Florack says:

    LOL. Hardly speculation, and hardly the only indication. ‘course, you already know that.