-By Warner Todd Huston
An extreme, left-wing Democrat group calling itself 21st Century Democrats has had the gall to send out an email blast using as a fundraising tool Saturday’s criminal shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. Judge John Roll and four others were killed in the incident, one of them a 9-year-old girl, but these Democrats are ignorant enough to be using this incident to try and squeeze donations from its supporters. Some might think the action of 21st Century Democrats is itself a crime — a crime against decency.
The email blast sent out Sunday morning to its supporters tells members that “we don’t know yet” why Jared Loughner shot Gabrielle Giffords but goes on to lay the blame on Sarah Palin and Gifford’s opponent in the past election for using “violent imagery” in his campaign.
The email goes on to ask members to “join us in sharing your thoughts and prayers to the Congresswoman and her family by visiting our website where we have set up a page for you to do so.” Naturally once you click on the link you are taken to a page that prominently displays the group’s DONATE NOW button. It is not in the slightest way discreetly designed. As soon as you go to this so-called prayers page you see a large button asking for donations and another one underneath it urging visitors to “sign up” for email blasts and information.
Disgustingly, 21st Century Democrats is using this crime in a fundraising effort.
Gauche is hardly a strong enough word to describe this action.
21st Century Democrats is no unheard of fringe group, either. Styling itself as one that is “building a progressive majority from the grassroots up,” it is interesting to note that some major top-down players in the Democrat Party founded the group. The group was created in 1986 by Senator Tom Harkin, a powerful Democrat from Iowa, and was co-founded by left-wing pundit Jim Hightower and former Illinois Congressman Lane Evans. These folks are hardly “grassroots” sort of folks.
Worse, even as this email blast accuses Sarah Palin and former candidate Jesse Kelly for using “violent imagery” and for “targeting” Giffords, this group is associated directly with The Daily Kos run by Markos Moulitsas who used precisely that same sort of “targeting” rhetoric last year during the campaign for the midterm elections.
In 2009 21st Century Democrats joined the Service Employees International Union, The Daily Kos and others in a new political action committee (PAC) called Accountability Now PAC.
Will 21st Century Democrats quit this PAC now that it has become aware that Markos Moulitsas used the same “violent imagery” and “targeting” rhetoric against Gabrielle Giffords? Will this purported “grassroots” groups founded by powerful members of Congress avoid charges of hypocrisy and stand on its supposed principle?
I’ll bet you’ll know the answer to that already.
CLICK HERE to see a screen capture of the email message sent by 21st Century Democrats.
Publius Coverage on Giffords Shooting
- Unbelievable: Democrat Group Using Gifford’s Shooting For Fundraiser!
- Even As Arizona Shooting Story Unfolds, Some Media Already Blaming Tea Party/Sarah Palin
- Murderous Attacker of Judge and Congresswoman, Anarchist, Communist, Currency Conspiracy Nut (Full text of killer’s crazy manifesto)
- Rep. Giffords Shot in Arizona! (Update: Fed Judge Also Shot)
(This article originally posted at BigGovernment.com)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
I just looked this over and you guys have your pants on fire – DEBUNKED. Stop the denial, people… its pathetic.
Forgive me if no one believes your partisan lies, there ursieland. All you have to do is LOOK at the email and the links it leads to. A wild-eyed left-winger like yourself may not want to believe your lyin’ eyes, but everyone else has no problem believing the truth.