In the Crosshairs of Insanity: Democrats and the Language of the Hunt

by Roman Lewis 

NEW ORLEANS —Democrats were quick to jump and try to link the deadly Arizona shooting to Sarah Palin, whose PAC published a map months back that featured, some say, rifle crosshairs identifying Democratic Congressional districts it was targeting.

It was political rhetoric of the lowest order, trying to demonize a practice as common as Happy Hours for bars and clearance sales for retailers.

In campaigns, political or corporate, "language of the hunt" is everywhere. Nouns like (gun) sights, crosshairs and target abound. As do verbs like aim, attack, and wrest.

But Liberals and the so-called Liberal Media, as is often the case, apparently have a case of short-term memory when it comes to its own use of the "language of the hunt."

Let me refresh their collective memory.

In May 2008, on the Democratic National Committee's web site,  a blogger writing about a recent visit to an Obama campaign office in Orlando, Fla., casually implored supporters of the presidential candidate to "take aim at John McCain as we rally under the banner of the Democratic Party." Not a word was spoken about the violent suggestion.

For a more literal example, the map below appeared on the website of the Democratic Leadership Committee back in 2004. It refers to Republicans as the "enemy" and refers to some congressmen as "ripe 'targets' for Democrats."

And if that's not bad enough, this map did not feature crosshairs, as you can see, it featured bulls-eyes. 

To quote our President -- let me be clear -- yes, it featured bulls-eyes.

As in, the kind we use at the firing range in target practice. Bulls-eyes.

One last thing about this map -- notice the caption, which reads, pointedly: "Behind Enemy Lines" when explaining the states that President Bush won by only single digits.

I'm just saying ...

And, before I move to our Liberal media, one more concrete example of Democrats' use of the same language that apparently incited Jared Loughner to shoot up a crowd, killing 6 people and critically injuring his target, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

This map was first published on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Web site last year.

Once again, no vagaries here. 

No, crosshairs that some say look just like surveyor's marks.

Nope,  just a dozen more bulls-eyes.

And, of course, the phrase -- "targeting Republicans."

And, by the way, the man in charge of the DCCC when this map came out? Congressman Chris Van Hollen -- who just happened to appear on MSNBC this week to quickly condemn Palin for her PAC's map that clearly incited a murderous attack at Congresswoman Giffords' function.  

But the story, and the "language of the hunt," don't end within Democrat's highest offices, rather it trickles down to mainstream media. Every day -- in headlines and captions and stories across the country, the media perpetuate this hateful, violent, murder-inciting mania.

I could do this for days, but I'll offer just a few examples to make my point here: 

In 2009, a NY Daily News reporter wrote -- "Democrats have Pete King in the crosshairs." 

No one decried columnist Elizabeth Benjamin's use of the phrase "in the crosshairs" in her piece on NY's 12th District Congressional campaign. It was just business as usual for the mainstream media, whose job it is to judge society's actions but dare not judge them or ask that we hold them accountable.

In 2008, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer published this article, which suggested that Northeast Ohio's crossover voters were clearly "in Democrats cross hairs."

And, in this 2009 story, published on military.com, the headline reads -- "Bush, Cheney in Democrats' Crosshairs."

The Houston Chronicle, in 2007, published this Robert Novak column with the headline -- Caught in the Democrats' crosshairs at payback time.'

Even Jerry Falwell is not immune to the language of the hunt, writing in 2005 that it was "not surprising that (Rep. Thom) DeLay is the man in the crosshairs" of Democrats as one of the GOP's most conservative leaders. 


(Delay, by the way, was sentenced this week to three years in prison for money laundering and conspiracy charges), so perhaps Falwell should have directed his energy at a more honest GOPer.


But back to our point ...

Which is that the "language of the hunt" has been, dare I say it, fair game for both parties throughout our country's history.

Oh, and one final example.

In 2008, a Reuters story includes this phrase ...

"The Obama administration on Tuesday threw its weight behind a bid to repeal an anti-trust exemption protecting health insurers, keeping the industry in its crosshairs as it prepares to host a bipartisan summit on revamping U.S. healthcare." 

Where was the Democratic outcry over that use?