Members of Congress have, by and large, stayed out of the partisan fray over violent rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting spree. But there have been some exceptions. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) took the opportunity to muse that the government may be withholding information about the crime because Jared Loughner is a flag-hating Marxist liberal who might embarrass President Obama.
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), by contrast, ran through a litany of now-infamous statements by high-profile politicians, leaving blank the names of people and issues under threat.
“Let me read some statements that I have seen to be pretty awful,” he said on Wednesday.
Here they are in order:
- Quoting Sharron Angle: “People are looking towards the second amendment remedies and saying my goodness, what can we do to turn our country around.”
- Angle again: “The first thing we need to do is take out blank.” The exact quote: “The first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.”
- Quoting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): “I want people in blank armed and dangerous on this issue [of the energy tax] because we need to fight back.”
- Quoting Glenn Beck: “I want to kill blank with a shovel.” The exact quote: “I want to kill Charlie Rangel with a shovel.”
- Beck again: “Every night I get down on my knees and pray blank will burst into flames.” The exact quote: “Every night I get down on my knees and pray Dennis Kucinich will burst into flames.”
- Quoting Texas GOP candidate Stephen Broden: ”Our nation was founded on violence. I don’t think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.’’ The exact quote: ”Our nation was founded on violence. The option is on the table. I don’t think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.’’
- Quoting Sarah Palin: “Don’t retreat, reload.”
- Quoting would-be Alan West chief of staff Joyce Kaufman: “If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”
You can watch his speech below.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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