The midweek edition of the Morning Jolt features Occupy protesters who want to blow up bridges in Ohio, reports of disturbing leaks about President Obama’s trip to Afghanistan, and then this continuing outrage . . .
Democrats Are Still Comparing the Tea Parties to McVeigh
Say, do you remember that time the Tea Parties tried to blow up bridges? Oh, that’s right, the dangerous Tea Partiers never did that sort of thing.
But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from insisting that the Tea Parties are quite comparable to the most dangerous domestic terrorist in recent memory:
The chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party is refusing to back down from comments he made likening convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to tea party activists.
Chairman Wallace Collins on Tuesday described McVeigh as an anti-government “right winger” and said he sees tea party activists in a “similar vein.” He previously told a Fox News reporter that if McVeigh were alive today, he would likely be a member of the tea party.
Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Matt Pinnell described Collins’ comments as “offensive and despicable” and demanded an apology.
Collins refused to apologize and says Pinnell is trying to politicize his comments.
Hey, pal, when you’re comparing your political opponents to mass murderers . . . your comments are already pretty well politicized.
Now . . . this is an awful, out-of-line comparison to make anywhere. But to do so in Oklahoma, not too long after the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing . . . well, with leadership like this, it is not surprising that the Democrats got completely wiped out in 2010: “The day began with Democrats holding eight of the 11 statewide elected non-federal positions. It ended with Republicans elected in all 11 statewide posts, along with six-seat GOP gains in both the state House and the state Senate.”
Of course, associating Tea Partiers with a maniac who blew up a day care center is nothing new for Democrats.
Rep. Brian Baird, August 2009: “[Baird] said a ‘coordinated national effort’ to disrupt public meetings with shouts and demonstrations, which he said Republican leaders were ‘egging on,’ was reminiscent of the kinds of things that drove Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.”
President Bill Clinton, April 2010: “With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaching, former President Bill Clinton on Thursday drew parallels between the antigovernment tone that preceded that devastating attack and the political tumult of today, saying government critics must be mindful that angry words can stir violent actions.”
Vice President Joe Biden, August 2011: “Vice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans Monday, accusing them of having ‘acted like terrorists’ in the fight over raising the nation’s debt limit, according to several sources in the room.”
I liked this column written by Charles Lane after a New York Times columnist accused conservatives of “waging jihad”:
. . . Terrorism is not defined by ideology or objectives; it is defined by methods. Terrorists are people who commit acts of physical violence, or threaten them, to influence politics. Tea Party members of Congress, by contrast, ran for office, got elected, and are now casting votes in the national legislature according to what they promised and what their constituents want. In the debt-ceiling debate, they played hardball politics in pursuit of their principles, as they see them.
If there’s any violence, or threat of violence there, or any law-breaking at all — much less a “jihad,” I can’t see it.
There are real terrorists out there: Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, Iran’s rulers. Yet some of the same people who are slapping the “terror” label on the Tea Party and condemning Obama for dealing with them also advocate outreach to Mideast terrorists, if not to negotiate with them, at least to understand of what makes them tick.