Loyalty, Palin-style

Sarah Palin has come under increasing pressure from crtics and former supporters alike for her campaign's use of violent imagery and language -- a map on her website "targets" Democrats holding vulnerable seats with gunsights and Palin says it's "time to reload" following the unsuccessful Republican bid to block health care reform -- but, while she has denounced violence in the wake of a number of attacks on Democratic political and congressional offices, including bricks thrown through windows at at least 4 offices in three states, she has said she will refuse to tone down her use of violent imagery and language.

That refusal has drawn criticism even from former supporters like Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of the talk show, "The View," who had campaigned for Palin in Florida, called the gunsight map "despicable." Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/27/1549689/palin-denounces-violence-but-gun.html#ixzz0jOTjyYpB

But buried in that story was a choice tidbit that reveals just how little  loyalty -- when she's expected to give it and is not herself trying to get it -- means to the resigned Alaska governor.

All 20 of the Democrats targeted by gunsights on the map on her website are right-leaning Democrats in GOP-leaning districts who had crossed party lines to support Palin and her presidential running mate, John McCain.

How does Palin pay them back for that act of supposed political courage, going against their own party? By putting them 'in the crosshairs' of  her political action committees efforts to dump them and elect politicians loyal to Palin, presumably in order to shore her potential support for a presidential run.

Nice, huh?

Conservative scholar David Frum fired from American Enterprise Institute for criticizing GOP all-or-nothing health vote strategy

In this minor shocker from the right, we find out just how much liberty and freedom of speech really mean to the people who fund conservative institutions like the once respected American Enterprise Institute -- which has reportedly forbidden Institute staffers like former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum from discussing the health care reform debate -- because too many of the  staffers reportedly agree with too much of the Obama health care initiative.

The   American Enterprise Institute apparently  fired conservative blogger and analyst David Frum -- who had held a resident fellowship at the AEI for seven years --   in the wake of criticism from  conservative political forces like the Wall Street Journal  and, crucially, large donors to the Institute, reportedly furious with an article on Frum's  blog site suggesting the GOP's all-or-nothing strategy of trying to stonewall health care reform had resulted in the most significant conservative GOP legislative loss since the 1960s.

Although Frum says no mention of the hailstorm of right wing criticism was made during his sacking,  fellow conservative commentator, Bruce Bartlett (who has also been under fire from the big money right for truth-talking) wrote that Frum had told him that American Enterprise Institute had forbidden Frum and other AEI staffers from discussing healthcare reform in the media -- because, Frum indicated, the Institute staffers agreed with too much of Obama's health care agenda.

Read more in the Washington Post.

"Attack" on Cantor office result of "random gunfire" according to police

Looks like Eric Cantor's me-too threat claims have blown up in his face. According to Richmond police, the bullet had been fired upward into the air and fell with a downward trajectory, striking Cantor's office window at a steep angle, but still with enough force to break the window. The spent slug fell just inside the broken window.

The cynical among us may jump to presume that the late night gunfire was the result of one of Cantor's drunken, gun-toting constituents getting a little frisky.

And -- if Cantor had been on the other side in this debate -- it seems likely that at least some anti-government types would have suggested that what America needs is more guns in the hands of more drunks. 

 Heaven forbid.


 [I posted these comments a few minutes ago here.]

Wave of tea party inspired attacks and threats

Tea party blogs appear to have inspired a wave of attacks on offices (and apparently a home) and threats against Democratic  legislators.

Incidents were reported in a number of states, including death and other threats of violence, an apparent attack on the home of the brother of a Virginia congressman -- local tea party blogs mistakenly posted the brother's address and suggest tea party sympathizers "drop by" and "thank" him for his vote on health care reform -- and a wave of broken windows at Democratic offices in a number of states inspired by anti-health care reform blogger in Alabama, Mike Vanderboegh, who had urged his readers angry at Democrats who voted for health care reform to "break their windows." His readers obliged, throwing bricks through windows of four Democratic party or congressional district offices in Kansas, Arizona, and two in New York state.

The tea party blogs that published and re-published the address of the brother of Virginia Democrat, Rep. Tom Perriello (thinking it was his), attempted to distance themselves from the attacks, according to an account in the Los Angeles Times:

Tea party officials said they did not encourage or condone attacks on Perriello's family or property.

"We wanted people to go by and talk to their congressman," said Nigel Coleman, who heads the Danville Tea Party. Coleman posted the address on his Facebook page after a member of the nearby Lynchburg Tea Party had posted the address on a blog.

Mark Lloyd, who heads the Lynchburg Tea Party, said the group, "condemn[s] violence," and that the posting never appeared on the group's official site.

GOP lawmakers denounce racial slurs by Tea Party Protesters

Like the block bully who menaces the neighborhood with his vicious dog and then is suddenly contrite when it tears apart one of the neighborhood kids, members of the Republican leadership denounced racial slurs screamed by anti-healthcare-reform protesters at a handful of black members of Congress, including one of the most respected living leaders of the 60s civil rights movement, Rep. John Lewis.

Another black congressman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was actually spat upon by anti-healthcare-reform protesters brought to the nation's capitol by Tea Party organizers. Capitol police reportedly detained the attacker but Cleaver declined to press charges. And gay, white congressman, Rep. Barney Frank, was the reported subject of a number of anti-gay insults, including "homo," and "faggot."

Some Republicans seemed genuinely outraged: Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, who marched alongside Lewis during the civil rights march in Selma in the 60s said the slurs were contemptible. Pence: "I denounce it in the strongest terms."

But Eric Cantor, whose job as GOP House whip makes it his task to keep GOP congressmen from crossing party lines to support heatlh-care reform, remained combative.

Cantor did offer a bland dismissal of the slurs: "Nobody condones that at all."

But when House Democratic Caucus chair John Larson suggested the events indicated that "everybody ought to ratchet back just a little bit," Cantor snapped back:

"You know what it is time for? It's time to listen to the American people, and that is the stunning thing about this."

It doesn't take a big stretch of imagination to figure out which Americans Cantor is listening to: faces contorted with rage, screaming racist epithets, spittle dripping down their chins -- that's the voice of America Cantor is tuned into.

More on CNN.