Tag Archives: DC shooting

national news, political news

This reaction to shooting is purely disgraceful

Just how poisonous is the political atmosphere in this country, just how toxic has it become? It has become so hideous that I am not entirely surprised to read a story that just came across my desk.

A Democrat from Nebraska has been booted from his party post for saying he is “glad” that Republican U.S. House of Representatives whip Steve Scalise was shot and wishes he were “dead.”

Hit the road, Phil Montag, who was recorded saying this about Scalise: “His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to [expletive] kick people off [expletive] health care. I’m glad he got shot,” Montag said in the audio recording. “I wish he was [expletive] dead.”

Good grief, dude!

Montag said his comments were “taken out of context.” Really, fella?

Scalise, of course, was wounded the other day when a gunman opened fire on Republican congressmen who were practicing in Alexandria, Va., for a charity baseball game against congressional Democrats. He damn near died from his wounds, but happily is now expected to make a full recovery.

Montag reportedly told the Omaha World-Herald: “I did not call for the congressman’s death.” Umm, yeah, you did, buster. The recording has you saying it in plain English.

This is a disgraceful example of the very kind of thing that has infected the political atmosphere. This guy makes me sick.

Read the story here.

national news, political news

Wake up, Congress, to greater civility

Ted Cruz believes this past week’s shooting at a baseball practice that wounded several of his fellow Republicans should be a “wake up call” for members of Congress.

The Texas U.S. senator is right, of course. He almost seems to state the obvious, that the tenor and tone of current political discussion has been filled with too much poison.

Five people were hurt in Alexandria, Va., while practicing for Congress’ annual charity baseball game. The shooter was angry at Donald J. Trump and, apparently, at GOP U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, who was wounded by a rifle shot from the gunman. Scalise’s condition is improving and for that we all are grateful.

The gunman died in a shootout with police.

“We may disagree on whether the federal government should have a simple flat tax or a massively confiscatory federal income tax, but those differences should not lead to demonization, vilification and personal attacks,” Cruz said in remarks to supporters.

But that’s what we’ve been hearing. It goes back many years. It’s been a bipartisan mantra. Democrats and Republicans point at each other across the aisle on Capitol Hill and question each other’s motives for whatever it is they seek to accomplish.

Politics used to be a noble calling. That’s not the case these days. It has become a contact sport. Some suggest politics has turned into a blood sport.

The dips*** shooter in Alexandria exemplified the danger of letting our emotions get the better of us.

national news

‘Madman’ to calm it down?

It doesn’t hurt as much as you might think to say something positive about someone who’s behaved quite repulsively for longer than I can remember.

Ted “Motor City Madman” Nugent, the fiery guitarist/rock singer known to spew hate, has decided to forgo his disgusting past.

The guy who once called Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel” and referred to Hillary Clinton as a “worthless bitch” says the shooting this week that injured several people practicing for a congressional charity baseball game has forced him to rethink his ways.

He said he is going to eliminate the hate speech that has peppered many of his political remarks.

Nugent vows to be more respectful

This is another positive outcome from the shooting that injured GOP House whip Steve Scalise and four others. Scalise and his Republican colleagues were practicing for the game they played congressional Democrats when a gunman opened fire.

Nugent said: “At the tender age of 69, my wife has convinced me that I just can’t use those harsh terms. I cannot, and I will not.”

Perhaps the “Madman” has been part of a greater societal problem. Political adversaries have become enemies. The political venom has been spewed from both sides of the political aisle. Members of Congress — Republicans and Democrats — have spoken in the past two days of burying the raw animosity. I welcome that expressed change of heart, too.

So it is, then, that a musician with something of a political following of his own has weighed in with a vow of relative civility in the wake of a story that has dominated the headlines of late.

I hope it sticks.

national news, political news

Congressional shooting produces a glimmer of hope

It’s only a glimmer, a flicker, a slight flash of light.

It might not last past the first serious floor debate in either chamber of Congress. However, the two leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives are saying something about unity, about common good, about patriotism and love of country.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today pledged to get the House to work more closely together, to set partisanship aside whenever possible. Their pledge came in the wake of that frightening shooting in Alexandria, in which House GOP whip Steve Scalise was injured critically by a gunman who wounded four others before being shot to death by Capital police officers.

A ‘kumbaya’ moment?

Dear reader, we have entered a dangerous time in American political history. The shooter reportedly was highly critical of Donald J. Trump; he also reportedly had some sort of hard feelings against Rep. Scalise, who appeared to be his primary target at that baseball practice field where Republican lawmakers were preparing for their annual charity game against Democratic colleagues.

As near as I can tell, this about the only good thing to come from this terrible event. I am praying, along with the rest of the nation, for the victims’ full recovery. Yes, the police responded with valor and gallantry; the lawmakers who rushed to Rep. Scalise’s aid also performed heroically.

I will await the outcome of Ryan and Pelosi’s pledge to work together, to put the bitterness aside, to argue civilly but maintain respect for each other’s side, their point of view … and appreciate the other’s love of country.

What a shame, though, that it took an even such as this to possibly make them reach this point.

national news

Speaker rises to the need to calm an edgy nation

Paul Ryan has taken a lot of hits of late over some of his political missteps.

The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, though, today delivered comments containing precisely the correct political tone in the wake of the shooting in Alexandria, Va., involving Republican members of Congress.

House GOP whip Steve Scalise was injured in the shooting. He will recover fully and the nation should be grateful for that — and for the recovery of the other individuals who were wounded.

“An attack on one is an attack on all of us,” Ryan said in a House floor speech. “We feel so deeply about the things we fight for and believe in. At times, our emotions can get the best of us,” he added.

Ryan also said, “I ask each of you to join me in resolving to come together…to lift each other up…and to show the country—show the world—that we are one House.”

The shooter is dead. The authorities are investigating what might have motivated him to apparently take aim at Scalise, who was standing at second base during a baseball practice, for crying out loud.

The political rhetoric of late has gotten extremely overheated, overblown and overstated by pols of all stripes, persuasions and philosophies. It well might be that the shooter’s actions this morning was a terrible result of that rhetoric.

Speaker Ryan has sought to calm his House colleagues. The president offered his own words of support and encouragement to the families of those who were wounded by the shooter.

Let us all calm down, take a deep breath and try to reflect on what we all have in common: the love of our country.

national news

Mayhem pre-empts policy debate — for now

An incident involving the national pastime, a baseball game practice, has delivered us a reprieve from the partisan battles that have roiled Capitol Hill.

For the immediate future, Republicans and Democrats are speaking as members of a single political party.

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise is injured from a gunshot wound inflicted by a shooter who opened fire on the GOP baseball practicing for a charity game scheduled for the weekend against the Democratic team; he is one of five victims wounded in this senseless act.

I don’t know about you, but I find it utterly incomprehensible that an act like this could occur in such a setting. Then again, this is 21st-century America in a time of terrible political division and rancor.

We don’t know whether politics motivated the shooter. Authorities haven’t yet established any kind of motive to what this individual did.

There is no little news to be gleaned from this event. One positive element is that Rep. Scalise and the other victims are going to make a full recovery from their wounds.

The other could be that it likely has spared us, if only for a limited time, from the angry political rhetoric that has produced such a toxic atmosphere in our nation’s capital.