HOSTILE POLITICAL RHETORIC: Giffords is a controversial figure in her district and has become a target of Tea Party activists for her support of health care reform, immigration reform, and other issues. When health care reform passed in March, Giffords was one of 10 Democrats who "report[ed] death threats , incidents of harassment or vandalism at their district offices." The front door to her district office was shattered and at a town hall event in 2009, also at a Safeway grocery store, her staffers had to call police after an angry constituent left a gun behind. Last year, Sarah Palin's PAC posted a map with gun cross-hairs over the districts of several Democrats who voted for health care reform, including Giffords', leading the Congresswoman herself to condemn the ad. "For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district," Giffords said. "When people do that, they've got to realize that there are consequences to that action." Palin has since taken down the image and is trying to distance herself from it. "We never, ever, ever intended it to be gunsights ," a Palin spokesperson told Tammy Bruce, a conservative talk show host. "[I]t was simply crosshairs like you see on maps." But as Slate's David Weigel points out, "This is deeply stupid." "Among the people who gave the impression that these were targets: Sarah Palin. When she announced the list in a tweet, she wrote 'don't retreat, instead - RELOAD!'" She continued using gun metaphors throughout the 2010 election, sometimes adding, "that is not a call to violence!" The Tea Party Nation also issued a statement immediately following the murders, distancing itself from the events. "While we need to take a moment to extend our sympathies to the families of those who died, we cannot allow the hard left to do what it tried to do in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing." In a subsequent email, it described Loughner as "a leftist lunatic."
...Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley about Palin's ad, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) responded that it was actually those referencing the ad that are being "irresponsible." "You're making and implying a direct connection between Sarah Palin and what happened. You're picking out a particular incident. Well, I think the way to get away from it is for you not to be talking about it," he said. Also on CNN, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tried to dismiss the notion that overheated political rhetoric may have played a role in the shooting, blaming the incident on a "breakdown in the family structure." Last April, former President Bill Clinton recommended that both the media and politicians be responsible with their rhetoric since it falls on the "serious and the delirious alike." "We can't let the debate veer so far into hatred that we lose focus of our common humanity," he said. "It's really important. We can't ever fudge the fact that there's a basic line dividing criticism from violence or its advocacy, and that the closer you get to the line and the more responsibility you have, you have to think about the echo chamber in which your words resonate."
The Progress Report