By MARC McDONALD
Sarah Palin has drawn criticism for her infamous "target" map that illustrated Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' 8th district with target crosshairs. A Palin spokeswoman has defended the map image, claiming that it was never meant to evoke guns or violence.
But if that's true, then why did Palin's camp rush to scrub the site with the image from the Internet only minutes after Giffords was shot? And why, in March, when Giffords criticized what she called a "gun sight" graphic, did Palin not rush to dispute this description back then?
Clearly, Palin doesn't have the courage of her convictions---which is ironic, because she portrays herself as a rugged "mama grizzly bear" who proudly stands her ground against the wimpy Dems and the "lamestream" media. But now, she's cowering in fear over what the latter might have to say about her crosshairs map.
It's notable that Giffords herself had previously raised concerns about Palin's map. Last March, Giffords, who had been the target of threats over her vote on health care reform, told MSNBC: "The way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have got to realize there are consequences to that action."
Note that Giffords' comments were scrubbed from Palin's Facebook page on Sunday.
Incidentally, anyone who expects the Giffords tragedy to cause GOP hate-mongers to tone down their heated rhetoric is dreaming. Right-wing radio continues to spew hate and bile and indeed, has reached a new low in the aftermath of the shooting.
On Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh said the suspected shooter, Jared Loughner, was smirking in his latest photo for a reason.
"What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail. He knows what's going on, he knows that...the Democrat party is attempting to find anybody but him to blame."
Keep it classy, Rush.
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