Hullabaloo

Monday, June 01, 2009

 

Shocked And Outraged

by digby

Alex Koppelman makes an interesting observation:

President Obama has weighed in on the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller. In a statement released Sunday evening, Obama said, "I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

It's somewhat interesting to see that the White House put out this statement under the president's name. Though he often officially weighs in on tragic events like the shooting in Binghamton, N.Y. last month or the plane crash near Buffalo back in February, when there's an issue the political team would rather not have Obama's name on, at least not directly, statements go out through someone like Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Obviously, the act of condemning a murder is generally uncontroversial -- or at least it should be. But the abortion issue is always fraught with controversy, and may affect two important fights for the administration in the near future: The confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and the passage of healthcare reform. So in some cases the White House may simply prefer not to have Obama himself wade in to the fray.

But he did, and good for him. After the Notre Dame nonsense and now this tragedy, it's clear that the anti-choice zealots are not going to join in his call for respectful dialog. And they certainly have no interest in finding common ground. The fanatics' intentions are less concerned with "life" (obviously) than with control and power.

You can't help but be struck by the fact that when Bush was in office, these political killings pretty much stopped. It's true that Islamic terrorism was the focus during that period, but it's not like the "domestic holocaust" ceased after 9/11. It was just politically inconvenient to murder abortion doctors or shoot up churches or kill cops since it would have put their favored politicians in an uncomfortable position. It was very considerate of them to wait until a Democrat was in office to become morally overwrought.

I'm very grateful that Obama spoke out personally and with some emotion, using words of outrage instead of the more predictable cop-out words of sorrow. At times like these a leader has to speak out.

Update: I love how the wingnuts are all calling for civility and admonishing the left not to use this right wing hate crime for "political gain." I just don't now how these people live with the cognitive dissonance. Here's Malkin:

*Princeton University professor Robert P. George is right about this: “Whoever murdered George Tiller has done a gravely wicked thing. The evil of this action is in no way diminished by the blood George Tiller had on his own hands. No private individual had the right to execute judgment against him. We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence.”

*President Obama is right about this: “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

*Unfortunately, some are not content to leave it at that for now. They fail to respect that there is a proper time and place to indulge in political battle.

You can go here, here, and here for all that. Another round-up here.

Tiller’s family is grieving. Those who have jumped to score political points before Tiller is even buried are no better than the Phelps family thugs of the “Westboro Baptist Church” who respect no bounds of civility.

Unfortunately, it’s too much to ask the cable news networks and hyper-partisan snipers on the Internet to have the decency to restrain themselves.

Can't we all get along?

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digby 6/01/2009 07:00:00 AM |