The shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, that
killed six people and left U.S. Representative
Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition is
contributing at least momentarily to a cooling of
U.S. political rhetoric.
The incident on Jan. 8, coming after the Jan. 5
opening of a new Congress in which Republicans
took control of the U.S. House, led the House to
postpone legislative business for the coming
week as both parties rushed to condemn the
attack.
It is also likely to hurt the image of former Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin, said Ross Baker, a
congressional scholar at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate
has posted on the Internet a map of the U.S. with
the cross-hair symbols for a rifle scope dotting
the home states of lawmakers, including Giffords,
whom she was targeting for defeat in the 2010
congressional election.
The tragedy “will take some of the edge off of the
polarization” and “will be used by lots of people
as an exhortation for people to be kinder to each
other, ” said Baker. At the same time, Palin’s brand
of “female macho,” he said, “is not going to wear
very well after this.”
Lawmakers were careful to stress that the
suspected shooter, identified as 22-year-old Jared
Loughner, has a troubled past and appears
mentally unstable. Regardless of whether it is
determined that Loughner also had political
motivations, members of both parties said
politicians and the media play a role in setting an
example of civility.
Toxic Atmosphere
“We are in a dark place in this country right now;
the atmospheric condition is toxic,”
Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri
Democrat, said yesterday on NBC ’s “Meet the
Press” program. “Much of it originates here in
Washington D.C., and we export it around the
country. ”
“My colleagues are very concerned about the
environment in which they are operating,” House
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said on CBS’s “Face
the Nation.” The Maryland Democrat termed the
political climate in recent years an “angrier,
confrontational environment,” and cautioned that
“what we say can, in fact, have consequences.”
Republicans also said it’s time for members of
both parties to come together.
‘Cool It’
“We ought to cool it, tone it down, treat each
other with great respect,” Tennessee Republican
Senator Lamar Alexander said on CNN’s “State of
the Union.”
House Speaker John Boehner ordered flags on the
House side of the U.S. Capitol flown at half-staff to
commemorate those killed, who included U.S.
District Judge John Roll. “An attack on one who
serves is an attack on all who serve,” Boehner
said at a press conference yesterday in West
Chester, Ohio. “Such acts of violence have no
place in our society.”
Senator Mike Lee, a newly elected Republican
from Utah interviewed on CNN, said “any time
you have political rhetoric that rises to the level of
personal, you have a problem. ”
Planned legislative business in the House is being
postponed for the coming week, House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in a
statement yesterday. The House had planned to
vote Jan. 12 on a repeal of Obama ’s health-care
overhaul. The House instead will consider that
day at least one resolution honoring Giffords and
other victims in the attack, according to Cantor ’s
office.
President Barack Obama has postponed a Jan. 11
trip to Schenectady, New York, and called for a
national moment of silence today at 11 a.m.
Eastern time.
Sarah Palin
The shooting put a spotlight on Palin. Last year,
Giffords was one of 20 Democrats who
supported health-care legislation who were
targeted on the crosshairs map for defeat by
Palin ’s political action committee, SarahPAC, in
last November’s elections.
An aide to Palin, the 2008 Republican vice
presidential candidate, said the images were
never meant to evoke violence. “We never ever,
ever intended it to be gun sights,” Rebecca
Mansour told the talk radio host Tammy Bruce in
an interview transcribed by the Alaska Dispatch.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No.
2 Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”
that such images aren’t helpful. “These sorts of
things, I think, invite the kind of toxic rhetoric that
can lead unstable people to believe this is an
acceptable response. ”
Media Role
Conservative public relations executive Keith
Appell issued a statement saying “some in the
media have implicated conservatives, the Tea
Party, talk radio, Republicans, etc., by extension”
in the shooting and that those efforts are
“ insidious, dishonest and divorced from reality.”
He cited a posting on the Website redstate.com
saying the media is trying to blame conservatives
for the shootings.
The tragedy is also prompting calls from
lawmakers for greater security at political events
that are often open to the public.
“It needs to be a wake-up call for members
who’ve treated their own personal security in a
cavalier way,” said Representative Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who
said she always has police officers present at her
events.
“It’s not just our personal safety that matters, it’s
also the personal safety of our constituents,” she
said on the “Meet the Press” program. “We need
to strike a balance.”
Impossible to Stop
Still, some security experts are cautioning there
are no easy solutions. “It’s impossible to stop,”
William Pickle, a former Senate Sergeant at Arms,
said on CNN ’s “State of the Union.”
“Until candidates stop campaigning, these things
are going to continue to happen,” said Pickle,
who also said there aren’t resources to protect
535 congressmen and senators.
Boehner said he has asked the House’s Sergeant
at Arms, U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI to
conduct a security overview for members on
Jan. 12.
Giffords, 40, herself warned last year about the
tone of the rhetoric in her district after her office
was vandalized.
“The way that she has it depicted has the
crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When
people do that, they have to realize that there are
consequences to that action, ” Giffords said in an
interview with MSNBC.
Tea Party
Her father told the New York Post that “the whole
Tea Party” was her enemy, referring to the loose-
knit national group pressing for smaller
government and less taxes.
Giffords, first elected to her seat in 2006,
narrowly won a third term in November over a
Tea-Party backed Republican.
Representative Raul Labrador, a newly elected
Republican from Idaho elected with Tea Party
support, said on “Meet the Press” that a level of
vitriol exists on both sides of the ideological
divide.
“We have to be careful not to blame one side or
the other,” Labrador said. “You have crazy people
on both sides.”
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, whose
jurisdiction includes Tucson, said yesterday that
while officials don ’t know the gunman’s motives,
he was concerned about extreme rhetoric in the
U.S.
“The anger, the hatred, the bigotry has gotten out
of control,” Dupnik said. “Unfortunately, Arizona
has become sort of the capital. This has become
the Mecca for bigotry and prejudice. ”
Representative Trent Franks, an Arizona
Republican, said on “Meet the Press” that
Loughner is “a deranged lunatic that had no
respect for his fellow human beings and
completely rejected any kind of constitutional
foundation of this nation. ”
Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-09/lawmakers-urge-end-to-political-rhetoric-after-tucson-shootings.html
killed six people and left U.S. Representative
Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition is
contributing at least momentarily to a cooling of
U.S. political rhetoric.
The incident on Jan. 8, coming after the Jan. 5
opening of a new Congress in which Republicans
took control of the U.S. House, led the House to
postpone legislative business for the coming
week as both parties rushed to condemn the
attack.
It is also likely to hurt the image of former Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin, said Ross Baker, a
congressional scholar at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate
has posted on the Internet a map of the U.S. with
the cross-hair symbols for a rifle scope dotting
the home states of lawmakers, including Giffords,
whom she was targeting for defeat in the 2010
congressional election.
The tragedy “will take some of the edge off of the
polarization” and “will be used by lots of people
as an exhortation for people to be kinder to each
other, ” said Baker. At the same time, Palin’s brand
of “female macho,” he said, “is not going to wear
very well after this.”
Lawmakers were careful to stress that the
suspected shooter, identified as 22-year-old Jared
Loughner, has a troubled past and appears
mentally unstable. Regardless of whether it is
determined that Loughner also had political
motivations, members of both parties said
politicians and the media play a role in setting an
example of civility.
Toxic Atmosphere
“We are in a dark place in this country right now;
the atmospheric condition is toxic,”
Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri
Democrat, said yesterday on NBC ’s “Meet the
Press” program. “Much of it originates here in
Washington D.C., and we export it around the
country. ”
“My colleagues are very concerned about the
environment in which they are operating,” House
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said on CBS’s “Face
the Nation.” The Maryland Democrat termed the
political climate in recent years an “angrier,
confrontational environment,” and cautioned that
“what we say can, in fact, have consequences.”
Republicans also said it’s time for members of
both parties to come together.
‘Cool It’
“We ought to cool it, tone it down, treat each
other with great respect,” Tennessee Republican
Senator Lamar Alexander said on CNN’s “State of
the Union.”
House Speaker John Boehner ordered flags on the
House side of the U.S. Capitol flown at half-staff to
commemorate those killed, who included U.S.
District Judge John Roll. “An attack on one who
serves is an attack on all who serve,” Boehner
said at a press conference yesterday in West
Chester, Ohio. “Such acts of violence have no
place in our society.”
Senator Mike Lee, a newly elected Republican
from Utah interviewed on CNN, said “any time
you have political rhetoric that rises to the level of
personal, you have a problem. ”
Planned legislative business in the House is being
postponed for the coming week, House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in a
statement yesterday. The House had planned to
vote Jan. 12 on a repeal of Obama ’s health-care
overhaul. The House instead will consider that
day at least one resolution honoring Giffords and
other victims in the attack, according to Cantor ’s
office.
President Barack Obama has postponed a Jan. 11
trip to Schenectady, New York, and called for a
national moment of silence today at 11 a.m.
Eastern time.
Sarah Palin
The shooting put a spotlight on Palin. Last year,
Giffords was one of 20 Democrats who
supported health-care legislation who were
targeted on the crosshairs map for defeat by
Palin ’s political action committee, SarahPAC, in
last November’s elections.
An aide to Palin, the 2008 Republican vice
presidential candidate, said the images were
never meant to evoke violence. “We never ever,
ever intended it to be gun sights,” Rebecca
Mansour told the talk radio host Tammy Bruce in
an interview transcribed by the Alaska Dispatch.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No.
2 Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”
that such images aren’t helpful. “These sorts of
things, I think, invite the kind of toxic rhetoric that
can lead unstable people to believe this is an
acceptable response. ”
Media Role
Conservative public relations executive Keith
Appell issued a statement saying “some in the
media have implicated conservatives, the Tea
Party, talk radio, Republicans, etc., by extension”
in the shooting and that those efforts are
“ insidious, dishonest and divorced from reality.”
He cited a posting on the Website redstate.com
saying the media is trying to blame conservatives
for the shootings.
The tragedy is also prompting calls from
lawmakers for greater security at political events
that are often open to the public.
“It needs to be a wake-up call for members
who’ve treated their own personal security in a
cavalier way,” said Representative Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who
said she always has police officers present at her
events.
“It’s not just our personal safety that matters, it’s
also the personal safety of our constituents,” she
said on the “Meet the Press” program. “We need
to strike a balance.”
Impossible to Stop
Still, some security experts are cautioning there
are no easy solutions. “It’s impossible to stop,”
William Pickle, a former Senate Sergeant at Arms,
said on CNN ’s “State of the Union.”
“Until candidates stop campaigning, these things
are going to continue to happen,” said Pickle,
who also said there aren’t resources to protect
535 congressmen and senators.
Boehner said he has asked the House’s Sergeant
at Arms, U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI to
conduct a security overview for members on
Jan. 12.
Giffords, 40, herself warned last year about the
tone of the rhetoric in her district after her office
was vandalized.
“The way that she has it depicted has the
crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When
people do that, they have to realize that there are
consequences to that action, ” Giffords said in an
interview with MSNBC.
Tea Party
Her father told the New York Post that “the whole
Tea Party” was her enemy, referring to the loose-
knit national group pressing for smaller
government and less taxes.
Giffords, first elected to her seat in 2006,
narrowly won a third term in November over a
Tea-Party backed Republican.
Representative Raul Labrador, a newly elected
Republican from Idaho elected with Tea Party
support, said on “Meet the Press” that a level of
vitriol exists on both sides of the ideological
divide.
“We have to be careful not to blame one side or
the other,” Labrador said. “You have crazy people
on both sides.”
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, whose
jurisdiction includes Tucson, said yesterday that
while officials don ’t know the gunman’s motives,
he was concerned about extreme rhetoric in the
U.S.
“The anger, the hatred, the bigotry has gotten out
of control,” Dupnik said. “Unfortunately, Arizona
has become sort of the capital. This has become
the Mecca for bigotry and prejudice. ”
Representative Trent Franks, an Arizona
Republican, said on “Meet the Press” that
Loughner is “a deranged lunatic that had no
respect for his fellow human beings and
completely rejected any kind of constitutional
foundation of this nation. ”
Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-09/lawmakers-urge-end-to-political-rhetoric-after-tucson-shootings.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment