USAT Cites Kanjorski NYT 'Civility' Op-Ed As 'Smart Insight'; Former Congressman Called For Rick Scott's Shooting
The folks at USA Today really ought to vet their candidates for the "Et Cetera -- Smart insights on the news of the day" section of the print edition of its editorial page a bit more thoroughly.
Wednesday morning's opener in that section (apparently not available online) featured two paragraphs from a New York Times op-ed by former Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski, including this final sentence:
Therefore, it is incumbent on all Americans to create an atmosphere of civility and respect in which political discourse can flow freely, without fear of violent confrontation.
As I noted yesterday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog; original HT Mark Hemingway at the Washington Examiner), Kanjorski's entitlement to lecture on civility is more than a little suspect, given what he said about Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott and the health insurance industry last year:
"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."
In his op-ed, Kanjorski joined the pantheon of alleged journalists, editorialists, and others whose writings have appeared in the New York Times during the past several days who have all of a sudden discovered the need for "civility" in the wake of the Tucson murders while demonstrating little if any restraint previously.
It's too bad that USAT let itself get suckered into giving Kanjorski's work more undeserved, response-free exposure. It's definitely not consistent with the stated goal of Founder Al Neuharth (whose "civility" credentials are also suspect) for the paper "to serve as a forum for understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
- Tom Blumer's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Maybe
Submitted by JustAl on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 11:38am.
It was his intention to offer a blindfold and cigarette first. Would that constitute "civility"?
Stop the "shooting"?
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 12:22pm.
Will we be able to "shoot videos" anymore? How about "shooting a moon"? "Shoot for the stars"? "Shoot pool"? "Shot in PanaVision"? "A shot of booze"? A shot (injection) in the arm?
The level of disingenuous
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 2:14pm.
The level of disingenuous rhetoric coming from the left is just the natural progression of the 5 stages of morning.
Unfortunately, they are still mourning their tragic loss in the mid term elections, not the horrendous loss of life and the mental anguish the Tucson community must endure.
Even more troubling is the fact that their collective arrested development has them jumbled in the first four stages all at the very same time.
1. Denial - They still refuse to accept the irrefutable fact their un - American ideology was summerily dismissed out of hand, by the American people.
2. Anger - Though an intergral part of any liberals everyday miserable life, the din has risen to that of a swarm of killer bees, of late.
3. Bargaining - After 10 long years of the left spewing vitriolic hatred at anything and everyone not exactly the same as themselves, now we're in charge and now they want to compomise ( on their terms ofcourse ) even having the balls to demand civility.
4. Depression - Another of their cronic ailments, exacerbated by their sense of loss of power and total control.
The entire liberal, progressive, socialist segment of this countries population are suffering from the same phenominum of being overwhelmed by all 4 stages at the same time.
This is what makes for such a volatile, dangerously explosive environment, where one or more ( because cowards rarely act alone ) can go off the deep end and cause irreperable harm to themselves or quite often ( as was the case this past Saturday ) others.
Unfortunately, due to the inbred defects of this group, they never make it through the normal progression of morning culminating in stage 5. - Acceptance....keeping them in a constant state of agitation and chaos ( borderline postal ), making it extremely dangerous for normal folks ( especially our children ) to even be around them.
Barack_Must_Go.....