The new Speaker gave remarks on the shooting rampage this morning:
Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Sunday morning that the “inhuman” shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others outside a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket this weekend “should not and will not deter us from our calling to represent our constituents and fulfill our oaths of office.”It shouldn't come with the risk of being shot.
“No act . . . must be allowed to stop us from our duty,” Mr. Boehner said during brief remarks at the West Chester, Ohio, Township Hall and Administration Offices. He echoed the sentiment he first expressed after the Saturday shooting that “an attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.” He also said the shooting reminds lawmakers that their job “comes with a risk.”
Speaking of risk, The Washington Post noted Boehner's past incendiary rhetoric:
The shootings have reignited debate over the increasing use of incendiary and often violent language in U.S. politics. Boehner faced criticism last year for saying that then-Rep. Steve Dreihaus (D-Ohio) "may be a dead man" because he voted in favor of President Obama's health-care overhaul. "He can't go home to the west side of Cincinnati," Boehner told The National Review.Exactly.
Boehner later said the comments were meant figuratively to describe the political peril facing Dreihaus because of his health-care vote. But Dreihaus, who was defeated in November, sharply criticized Boehner and other Republican lawmakers for using stark and violent imagery in reference to their opponents.
"These comments that have been made by Republican leaders can serve as--I don't know if I want to say an excuse or perhaps permission for people who may be unbalanced, who may be calling with these threats," Dreihaus said in March 2010, adding: "It doesn't really matter the way you meant it, nor the way I accept it. It's how the least sane person in my district accepts it."
