Right-wingers have a problem admitting that there's such a thing as right-wing terrorism. We saw it recently with that prescient Homeland Security bulletin that they all claimed smeared them. And now we're seeing it again with the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.
Sarah Palin issued a statement today about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas that was a classic Double Fail:
I feel sorrow for the Tiller family. I respect the sanctity of life and the tragedy that took place today in Kansas clearly violates respect for life. This murder also damages the positive message of life, for the unborn, and for those living. Ask yourself, 'What will those who have not yet decided personally where they stand on this issue take away from today's event in Kansas?'
Regardless of my strong objection to Dr. Tiller's abortion practices, violence is never an answer in advancing the pro-life message.
Palin, like most movement conservatives, is worried most of all about the possible effects this murder will have on the anti-abortion movement and her own politics.
More to the point, she refuses to acknowledge -- just as she did in the campaign last year, in the above interview with John McCain -- that abortion-clinic violence is in fact domestic terrorism.
She's certainly not alone in that regard. Michelle Malkin openly mocked the very idea of it today, as did others.
But this is not a new problem. Back in 2003, then-Rep. Porter Goss-- prior to his stint as CIA director -- made similar claims:
"The trouble is, 'terrorism' is a very broad word, and it lends itself to a lot of mischief for people who would abuse common sense," Goss said. He then cited bombings of abortion clinics. "To me, that's not the kind of terrorism I'm talking about."
But in 2004, anti-abortion militants in the Army of God -- the violently anti-abortion organization with which Scott Roeder, Tiller's assassin, was associated at one time -- openly celebrated their status as terrorists:
Pleading, politics and pandering have done precious little to stop the holocaust against the innocent. But the Christian terrorist is not so inadequate. Dead abortionists don't kill babies, and a fire-bombed death camp can no longer facilitate the holocaust against them.
As cream rises to the top, so the Christian terrorist rises above the huddled masses of churchgoers and the many voices that denounce their violent attempts to defend the innocent from their murderous assailants.
The people committing these acts see themselves as terrorists and embrace the notion. Unfortunately, their fellow right-wingers who don't condone or share their behavioral extremism -- but do share their belief that abortion is murder and that Dr. Tiller was a "mass murderer" -- are much too busy covering up that fact. And their friends in the media are willing to let them get away with it.
