Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Dino Rossi, Republican Party condemn threats of violence against Patty Murray

Shortly after the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Charles Alan Wilson - who is charged with threatening the life of Senator Patty Murray - Dino Rossi and the Washington State Republican Party offered their sympathies to Murray and denounced Wilson's conduct, described in a fourteen page criminal complaint.

Around 12:30 PM, Rossi's former spokesperson, Mary Lane, emailed the following statement to state political reporters:
We have just learned about the threats made to Sen. Patty Murray. Dino is horrified by this awful news, prays for Sen. Murray's safety, and condemns any threats made to any public official. He is relieved that the person in question has been apprehended and charged.
Less than a half hour later, Republican Party Luke Esser said:
The Washington State Republican Party strongly condemns the threats against Senator Murray. Threats of violence have no place in our political process. We are pleased that this man has been taken into custody.
Rossi and Esser may be sincere in expressing their sympathies to Murray and denouncing Wilson, but they certainly had a secondary motive in reacting so speedily to his arrest: They don't want decent people to think they tacitly approve of this sort of thing by staying silent.

HA Seattle blogger David Goldstein thinks Rossi (and McKenna) should go further and repudiate the right wing hate talk that enables fanatics like Wilson.
I wonder at what point allegedly mainstream politicians like Dino Rossi and Rob McKenna will stop fighting amongst themselves for the Tea Party mantle, and start condemning the hateful, violent rhetoric that fuels its base? A little more than a week ago McKenna basked in the glory of a Teabagger rally that vilified Democrats as “gangsters,” “socialists,” “fascists” and worse. McKenna’s mere presence was a tacit approval of the hateful signs being waved in front of him, and while his own words may have been carefully chosen he said nothing to condemn those that were not.
Hate speech begets death threats, and death threats beget violence (that's why they're investigated by the FBI). Rossi and McKenna's problem is that they want the support of both their rabid right wing base and that of independent voters anxious about their families' economic security. But they can't truly have one without seriously risking the loss of the other.

Comments:

Blogger Steve Zemke said...

Sounds like maybe Wilson was following Sarah Palin's lead. Her Facebook page had Democrats targeted with gunsights. It's great for the publicity seeking right wing and Tea Party fanatics until someone gets killed. It's easy to incite violence. It's a lot harder to find solutions to problems.

Senator Patty Murray and other Democrats have been working hard to solve our nation's problems. Republicans and others may disagree with the solutions but the public voted to put Murray and other Democrats in office. Let those that disagree go to the ballot box just like those that support what the Democrats are doing have done. That's democracy.

8:22 PM  
Blogger cop welfare said...

charles alan wilson.
so where is his picture?
that other nutball from sf is right there with his fat face in the news.

2:10 PM  

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