Florida Democrats call for Rumsfeld hit

When the republicans make a gaff, it ends up costing too much.

I think that what was done was in miserable taste, but com'on guys. I think that what happened is directly a result of level of puerile mudslinging that is going on in this election year.

Enough already. From now on, I am installing a baloney filter in my brain, which will weed out all partisan attacks, gross exaggerations, and other nonsense designed to further confuse voters in this most complicated time!

Well since you seem to want to discuss it, consider it subjectively. When is the last time you saw a Republican advocating putting a Democrat up against the wall and pulling the trigger? I contend that you'll hear more "hate speech" from the left than from the right. Generally, that is...Michael Savage blasts out venom on a daily basis, but he's one of the lonely exceptions on the right. I'm talking about a Bill Maher who said, when Donald Rumsfeld went in for rectal surgery, that it was because he wiped his butt with the Constitution so much. I'm talking about the same Maher who lost his TV show and caused an uproar when he said something to the effect that US troops were the terrorists. About the worst you hear from a right-winger is that so and so is an idiot. Or, like in the Michael Moore thread, he's overweight. But here's Michael Moore himself stating that the President has his head up his butt. More hate speech. Is this starting to strike a familiar note?

You should talk to blatham about this. He says the reverse. And when he said it to me I said it was the stupidest thing I'd heard him say.

I'll just say I disagree for now, and that incumbent vs contras is a relevant cycle to look at.

Maybe we can get into it later, but blatham's the man to talk to he has a diametrically opposed position while I simply find the attempts at characterization unfounded and rather silly.

Okey-dokey.

I have long maintained that conservatives are much better at providing an objective rationale for their point of view than are liberals. I do think it is difficult for most liberals to make a case for their side without making uncomplimentary remarks or aspersions (though I know or know of a few who can.)

I think it is for this reason that liberal politics/advocates overall tend to be more negative and contentious than those on the right. They often give the impression of being against something more than they are for something.

Having said that, it doesn't take much effort to find predominently conservative websites/message boards on which there are some very adolescent, hateful, and stupid remarks. My partisan bias shows when I find these embarassing while I expect to find it on predominently liberal sites.
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I think hate speech from either side is unbecoming, unproductive, and makes the person using it appear to be unintelligent or, at the very least, uneducated/uninformed.

My personal policy is not to engage in debate by insult. That keeps me from blowing my cool. Okay, it USUALLY keeps me from blowing my cool.
I recommend the policy anyway.

I will have to say, though it seems to fall into the pattern of what Craven said:

I believe, based on observation, that the more liberal people are freer with their venom.

I have seen countless calls for the murder of Bush administration officials--and the charges against him and his admin. are lower and wilder than I've seen against Democrats.

Sure, I talked with and observed Clinton bashers--but never saw a call for his assassination.

I think there is a basic difference in what makes one a liberal, and what makes one a conservative. CERTAINLY not in all cases...we have our wackos--but on the whole-- in the last few years, it seems the Dems wackos are running the party, while ours are still kept on the fringes.

IMO, anyway.