Democratic Congresswoman Among 12 Shot in Arizona

You know, I hate to rain on the parade, but the call for more civil politics will probably never work. Not on any kind of grand scale. Because of how voters are swayed emotionally, there is too much incentive on each side not to be civil. No one wants to take the gamble that the other side is going to play clean. Any first-year MBA negotiation exercise would reveal this principle in action.

 

So Boehner could postpone the grandstanding Health Care Reform Bill "repeal" for a week, but he couldn't postpone an RNC event for a day? He took a pass on the opportunity to show a little American unity by spending about 12 hours or so in the company of the President and the Minority Leader, and instead chose to attend a purely partisan cocktail party?

Really?

 

Because he has a moral curfew, apparently.

 

I thought civility meant more than that.

Yet, not the same thing. The story pushed was a lie, and the press went with it.

Why? He wasn't in Tucson, and he still got home in time to watch it on TV.

Should we look into what all 535 members of the House & Senate were doing last night?

You'll notice that I've taken up for Obama on this thread and criticized Palin. What makes you think I wouldn't defend Pelosi if she was falsely accused.

Yes. It would be nice if they got the story straight before criticizing him. That should be a bare minimum.

 

All of SJ hears you.

Seriously the bump does not bother me. Obama did a great job and should get a bump.

What bothers me is how fickle and narrow minded we've become in viewing our leaders.

Our opinion of them seems to turn on each speech they make - From stump speeches to important policy speeches. We need to take a longer term view.

 

Mob mentality. What are you gonna do, you know? Think about how voters freak out after the DNC and RNC. I've done it myself. I try to keep an even keel now. But voters as a whole, led by their pied pipers like Chris Matthews and Sean Hannity, can't help themselves.

 

Oh, right. I had already forgotten that I had said that.

I was referring to Rep. Peter King who has proposed a federal law making it illegal to be armed within 1000' of a member of Congress.

When I saw your post, my mind went to SI's Peter King instead.

 

No offense to Dick but I find 21 the most honorable liberal I've ever encountered.

 

Sarah Palin knocked it out of the park at Republican Convention and has been turning up like a bad penny ever since.

 

Please read the article. Please.

He couldn't both preside over the House tribute and travel with the President to Tucson.

The suggestions that he "declined to travel with the President aboard Air Force One" don't account for that fact.

 

Perhaps I should have said I'm confident that YF would believe Pelosi if she responded to similar criticism with this type of explanation.

 

Short article about the defense attorney for Loughner which calls her work "a triumph of principle over passion."

http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/judy-clarke-and-defending-despised

That's something I tried to say about people in her line of work on the Virginia lacrosse murder thread.