Frank Rich: The Guns of August

“IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama’s town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago. The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” That’s the beauty of a gun — you don’t have to spell out the “blood.”

The protester was a nut. America has never had a shortage of them. But what’s Tom Coburn’s excuse? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma, where 168 people were murdered by right-wing psychopaths who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Their leader, Timothy McVeigh, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt when he committed this act of mass murder. Yet last Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government.

“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.”

Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9/11 has not changed his worldview.

I have been writing about the simmering undertone of violence in our politics since October, when Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate of a major political party, said nothing to condemn Obama haters shrieking “Treason!,” “Terrorist!” and “Off with his head!” at her rallies. As vacation beckons, I’d like to drop the subject, but the atmosphere keeps getting darker.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23rich.html

Coburn very likely has friends in militias.

Good article, btw.

and apologizes for those lies, he has no credibilty.

and wants accountabilty from our millionare pundit class.

like he did when Bush was President.

Unlike your kind, Krugman doesn't blind himself to politicians like Obama. He reasonably makes arguments based on his knowledge, experience and what needs to get accomplished.

I'm talking about Frank Rich.

Really, I am still pissed by the way Gore was treated by the media in 2000 though Rich and Krugman and others make good points.

Hopefully Obama will read it and get some commonsense knocked into his head. I want to hear Obama treat the Repukes today what FDR did in the 1930's -- economic royalists who are throwing tantrums to keep and enlarge their power at the expense of ordinary Americans and our democracy. FDR was called a enemy to his class and he releashed it. Obama has shown that he does not like to fight. That makes him easily bullied, which is what the Repukes and their minions have been doing.