Academic

More dumb things that politicians say: Peter DeFazio's bizarre comment about the Arizona shooting

By Tung Yin

I guess the most charitable thing that can be said is that maybe Rep. Peter DeFazio was quite shaken up by the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (and the murder of five people, include Chief Judge Roll), but his comment that ends the Oregonian story is pretty ridiculous:

This kind of behavior isn't part of Oregon's culture?  Well, I would hope not.  But DeFazio seems to be implying that it is part of Arizona's culture, which is a pretty ridiculous observation.  Rather than ascribe the horrific incident to a single disturbed person, does DeFazio really believe that Arizonans in general approve of assassination of political officials?

What if someone were to judge Oregon based on the Woodburn bombers ("blowing up police officers?  That's not part of Arizona's culture. . . .") or the alleged bomb plot plan by Mohamed Mohamud ("blowing up lots of innocent people at a Christmas tree lighting?  That's not part of Arizona's culture. . . .").

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on January 09, 2011 (boomark / email).