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Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot today outside a Tucson grocery store. While there are conflicting reports about her health, the Detroit Free Press reports that doctor’s have said Giffords’ outlook is “optimistic” while in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
The three-term congresswoman representing a Republican-heavy district narrowly won her last term in November. She was hosting her first “Congress on Your Corner” event when a gunman shot her “point-blank in the head,” reports the Tucson Citizen.
According to the Pima County’s Sheriff’s Office, Giffords and at least 10 others were shot, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. President Barack Obama said five people died in all.
Giffords, 40, was not edgy, not at either end of the political spectrum. She’s a moderate Democrat and gun owner. Last week, she was one of 19 Democrats who declined to vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader.
But she did support Obama’s healthcare reform. This made her, according to the New York Daily News, “a popular target of conservative talking head Sarah Palin and Tea Party members during the 2010 election. On her Facebook page last spring, Palin posted a U.S. map with crosshairs of a rifle scope over the districts repped by Giffords and 19 other Democrats.”
Last March, after the Health Care reform bill passed, Giffords was the victim of several attacks against Democrats when vandals broke the door of her district office.
Giffords was also the first Jewish congresswoman representing Arizona.
Palin, on her Facebook page, posted the following today:
On the tragedy in Arizona
My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.
On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.
- Sarah Palin
Additional politicos took to social messaging to condemn the attack:
“This attack at Rep. Giffords event is a horrible, despicable assault on good people and our democracy,” Sen. David Vitter(R-La.) tweeted. “Very unsettling.”
Many Members, including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), used the website to post statements offering prayers to Giffords’ family, friends and staff. Other Members typed more off-the-cuff messages, including Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who posted: “I feel sick to my stomach. Praying.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) echoed McCaskill’s tweet in his own message. “Just getting word about the shooting of Rep. Giffords. This type of senseless act of violence should never happen,” he wrote.
Added Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.): “Words cannot express the pain and sorrow I feel re: the senseless shooting of my colleague, Rep. Giffords, and members of her staff.”
But should we pretend that the violent rhetoric of Palin and her followers aren’t “just an overheated metaphor,” says Huffington Post writer Marty Kaplan. How many times have we heard Jon Stewart and others speak out about how the GOP and Tea Party movement, with their angry bombast, pushes people? This “lock-and-load” mentality is increasingly the face of politics in America–reptilian, raging, uncivil, unyielding and, in this case, murderous.
For perspective, though, political assassinations in the U.S. have not necessarily been in lockstep with a particular ideology. Which makes this early year 2011 shooting so chilling.
Police say the gunman is in custody, identified as Jared Loughner, 22. His motivation is unclear. His MySpace page, removed within minutes of being identified, included a “Goodbye friends” message published hours before the shooting and “Please don’t be mad at me.”
What do you think? What and who was behind this shooting?
