Who Are The Haters?

A small Florida weekly, the St. Petersburg Gabber, ran an ad this week from the local Democratic Club that called for death for Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld:

We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger.

They then solicited donations for the Kerry For President campaign. The Democrats and Kerry both quickly disavowed the ad, to their credit. Good for them.

I know that the Republicans had hysterical fits during the Clinton years and were brutal to both Bill and Hil. I know because I was too. When Bush was elected and the tables turned, when the cycle didn't die but went up a notch against Bush, I realised my mistake and retired from the bleeding edge. But I don't recall the kind of rabid death calls we've been seeing from the Democrats since the Florida election circus. Dem berserker hatred since 2000 far exceeds Republican anti-Clinton rabidity, it seems to me.

I'm not saying political campaigning is dirty. It's actually pretty tame compared to some times in our history. It's the attending hate coming from activists that disturbs me. I wish the big media would acknowledge this more, so we can recognise it and hopefully open a serious dialogue on how to change it.

Because I'm getting troubled by it. Partisanship is fine, but not when it interferes with actually running our political processes. Sharp jabs are OK, but not repeated stabbing.

[Note: if the link to the Drudge copy of the Gabber ad goes down, let me know and I'll post it to my site. I saved a copy.]