"Vitriol" incited Saturday's horrific shootings in Arizona. Or so we are told by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and Dick Durbin. Sheriff Dupnik revealed his newly acquired forensic psychology expertise, declaring Arizona the "Mecca for prejudice and bigotry" and echoing Dick Durbin's plea to tone down political vitriol because mentally imbalanced people "are especially susceptible to vitriol."

I agree with the plea to tone down the politicl vitriol, most particularly against women politicians. For the past two years especially, it has been vicious and hatefilled. In this past election campaign, major media sources repeatedly demonized and dehumanized women political candidates as "whores" and "bitches" who were "going to hell", one even joked about the rape of a woman politician's daughter, another posting a salacious and sickening story of a supposed sexual encounter with a female political candidate, and a member of Congress impuning Republican congresswomen saying “You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women. You sure can’t find out by how they vote.”

To be clear, I am not specifically blaming Jerry Brown, Joy Behar, David Letterman, the Gawker, or Congresswoman Sontany for the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords. Certainly, though, no one can disregard their deliberate and vicious smears against female politicians solely based on their gender and their political viewpoint.

Frankly, finding a convenient scapegoat (other than the obvious -- that the shooter is a violent nutjob) has proven difficult given the tragic array of victims - a female Jewish Democrat Congresswoman, a conservative Bush appointed Federal Judge, a young Catholic girl, etc. Personally, I have no answer or explanation for the horror other than a man motivated by evil. Seems vitriol is an equal opportunity assassin.



Vitriol these days seems to be a favored tool of the Left these days, especially when it is directed at women, specifically conservative Republican women. As Michele Malkin describes:

Women who put an “R” by their name have abandoned their ovaries and betrayed their gender. As Republican officeholders and conservative public figures who are women have grown in number and visibility, the progression of Conservative Female Abuse has worsened. The astonishing vitriol and virulent hatred directed at GOP Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the most severe manifestation to date.

Maybe Media Matters could apologize for suggesting Sarah Palin plays the victim card. (Alan Colmes has scrubbed his post calling Palin's pre-natal care into question -- Where is Alan Colmes these days? Oh yeah, he's in Liberaland...literally).



Time to condemn all such violent, vitriolic attacks against women (and men) for holding and expressing their political views. Make-Believe Media, the vitriol ball is in your court. Clean up your game.