Dems Renounce Assassination Call
We noted yesterday that the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Democratic Club had taken out an ad in a local weekly newspaper urging the assassination of Donald Rumsfeld and donations to the Kerry campaign. CNN reports the campaign has denounced the ad:
"We are calling the Pinellas County Democratic Party chair about this ad and demand that it be retracted," Kerry campaign spokesman Stephanie Cutter told CNN. "John Kerry does not condone this type of advertising and believes that it is wrong."
It's not quite clear why they're calling a piece of furniture. Even more confusingly, a Washington Times headline says the ad has been "withdrawn," but the actual story says only that various Florida Democratic bigwigs are distancing themselves from it.
The Times quotes Edna McCall, the club's vice president, as telling the Drudge Report "that the ad was not meant as a call for actual injury to Mr. Rumsfeld. ' "Pull the trigger" means let Rumsfeld know where we stand, not shoot him,' she said. 'We are getting raped, and they are planning to steal the election again.' "
Hmm, here's a full lexicon of Edna McCall-speak:
"pull the trigger": to let someone know where you stand
"getting raped": losing
"steal": win
We suggested yesterday that there was a media double standard, that a Republican group would get much harsher treatment if it did something similar. A bit of evidence is in this 2000 CNN report describing the outrage of antigun activists over a fund-raising contest for the Carroll County, Md., Republican Party. The local party didn't call for anyone's murder; it merely raffled off a 9mm handgun, an item whose ownership is not only legal but protected by the Bill of Rights.
__________________
|