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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I like a good political smear as well as the next guy ...

Glenn Reynolds links to Brad Sherman (D-CA) on FOX News stating
"Whether [political rhetoric] caused what happened in Tucson or not, it’ll cause the next tragedy."

What I found instructive was is assertion that the assassin was a right-wing nut. The accusation begins at 2:58 on the tape. He also mis-characterizes Sharron Angle's references to a 2nd Amendment solutions to tyranny as a call for the violent take-over of congress if she could not win at the ballot box.  Angle's comments are not the ones I would have used, but they are certainly less vigorous than Thomas Jefferson's admonition that
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."
But what does Jefferson know about fighting for freedom?  Sherman would have advocated shunning and silencing him.

As political smear by a smiling dork, Sherman is a master.  You would be amazed what you can get away with on TV if the interviewer does not have a transcript in front of him.

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