The Politics of Violence

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats.

Sten Hoyer: Members are at Risk

As Michele Malkin rightly points out,

The fact that plenty of Republicans get threats every day and nobody says a thing notwithstanding, taking Hoyer’s words at face value, as a conservative Republican, I condemn real threats of violence almost as much as I condemn desperate claims that are manufactured in a cheap attempts to further broken agendas.

No one has been arrested or even identified for having threatened anyone. One can only speculate about who is guilty. It must not be overlooked that some are all of these incidents may have been staged by communist Democrats in order to generate sympathy. Democrat Hoyer is merely playing a petty political trick. By calling for only Republicans to condemn threats, he implies that only Republicans can have some influence over the perpetrators of these alleged threats. He is doing nothing more or less than asking Republicans to take ownership of the threats. His pretense of concern is disingenuous and flat out dishonest. Instead of responding to his call, I respond to Ms. Malkin's call to condemnation.

That said, I’d like Rep. Hoyer and people of all political stripes to condemn the assumption that any physical threats of retribution over the health care bill are coming from Republicans.