Arkansas Democratic Party chairman shot, in critical condition

August 13, 2008

We don’t know the motive, but we do know the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party was shot in his office today, and is in a Little Rock hospital in critical condition.

The gunman asked to speak to the party chairman, Bill Gwatney, and fired three shots at the office near the state Capitol.

“He came in and went into this office and started shooting,” police Lt. Terry Hastings told reporters near the party headquarters.

Gwatney, a former legislator, was in critical condition, Hastings said. Party officials confirmed the victim was Gwatney.

The suspect was chased into Grant County, south of Little Rock, and apprehended after being shot, the police spokesman said. The suspect’s condition and motive were not known.

Apparently, the gunman entered the party’s office and asked to meet with Gwatney. When a secretary declined, the man went into Gwatney’s office and shot him.

The suspect was shot and apprehended soon after.

It’s easy

Koupit Cialis Daily

, of course, to wonder about political motivations, but let’s wait for additional information before jumping to conclusions. The madman who attacked a Universalist church in Tennessee a couple of weeks ago was targeting liberals for their ideology, but we don’t know any of the circumstances about today’s shooting.

Holy cow. That’s terrible.

My heart goes out to his family.

So sad when we see what is happening in this world.

  • My thoughts go to Bill and the Gwatney family, but I can’t help but feel that this is just another precursor of what is to come.

    Now that the political pendulum is swinging the other way, the neandertals on the right are feeling desperation. While I had hoped it wouldn’t get to this point, they apparently feel that violence is their last recourse of action.

  • Nobody likes to see stuff like this. Obviously the guy had a couple screws loose and hopefully justice will be served.

  • Michael, perhaps politics had a play in this, but let’s not bunch all Republicans with this loon. I don’t condone this, nor am I dancing in the streets about it either. It is what it is, a victim, an attacker, and those around them who are going through some tough times now.

  • Where does it say anywhere that the shooter was a Republican? Or do we just assume now that anyone who shoots anyone else is a Republican? Certainly that’ll be good news as the GOP can surely count on a much higher percentage of the urban vote now.

  • Chad, I’m not condemming all Republicans, just those of the Unibomber or Timothy McVeigh mindset. I think they are growing in number, and are becoming less restrained in their morality. Their concept of “good vs. evil” is seriously warped.

    What I’d like to see is more of a focus on domestic terrorism. I’d like for the American public to wake up and see these religious fanatics for what they truly are.

  • If this guy is just a looney chad, then why didn’t he just go to a local drug store and start shooting?

    Gwatney was specifically targeted. Now, there is a small chance tht he and the shooter had some sort of history, cheating with a wife, who knows, but the fact that he’s the Arkansas democratic party chair.

    Sounds to me like we have another instance of a right wing nutjob getting pushed over the edge by the right wing radio types, Hannity, Limpballs, etc. These people have done more to poison the political atmosphere in this county than any other group. They feed gullible minds with their sewage, and now their listeners are resorting to murder.

    Germany 1932.

  • Calm down, everyone. It’s still unclear what the motivation was.

    The article suggests it has to do with the gunman losing his job, not anything political: “Rumors immediately arose that the shooter might have been a disgruntled former employee of a Gwatney Chevrolet dealership. There were layoffs at a Gwatney dealership this week, according to employees.”

    Let’s wait for the evidence to come in before we make any grand assertions here. We don’t need to emulate the Malkin Brigades.

  • “Michael, perhaps politics had a play in this, but let’s not bunch all Republicans with this loon. I don’t condone this, nor am I dancing in the streets about it either. It is what it is, a victim, an attacker, and those around them who are going through some tough times now.”

    This may just be a hypothetical question but it has to be asked: How many instances of liberals being targeted for violence (because of their politics) does it take for this to cease being “just another isolated incident” and instead turn into a symptom of something darker?

  • TR (#9), you are correct. My knee-jerk response was uncalled for.

    I do think it telling, though, that that was my first response. I’m registered as a non-affiliated voter. Heck, I even voted for Reagan the first time (but not the second, I was 18 and a “good Mormon boy”, so give me a break). I have lost all respect for that party, and the wing-nuts that have taken it over scare the hell out of me. Depending on what we find out, I will stand by my above comments, though. I seriously think this trend is going to get worse before it gets better.

  • I agree that we can’t and shouldn’t say we know what the motive was, but anyone who listens to the hate radio being broadcast to millions of Americans knows that it isn’t being done without a price. Armed right wing idiots are a dime a dozen, so it would surprise no one if this guy was one, even if he worked for the dealership owned by Gwatney.

    Let’s see what this is, but IMO there’s no more harm in speculating about this than there is in speculating about the myriad other things we speculate about all the time.

  • The shooter is dead. Apparently he wasn’t worth keeping alive long enough to find out his motivation…

    And will we be satisified with what the authorities say? Anymore than with Ivins?

    Sorry Chad, but there are murderous people in the wingnut fringe, who go a lot further beyond firebombing SUVs and Animal Testing Labs.

  • Just to be clear, I realize that the right-wing hate machine is fully capable of engendering tragic results like this. I’m just saying, let’s be careful in attributing those specific motives to this specific instance unless we know for sure.

    The wolf’s out there, but crying wolf on a false alarm will make any real complaints seem thinner.

  • I seriously think this trend is going to get worse before it gets better.

    And yeah, I sadly agree with that. The far-right nuts have been told repeatedly that the Democrats are going to lead the country into armageddon, and they’ll do whatever they can to stop it.

  • Has everybody except me overlooked the fact that this lunatic – okay aggrieved and unemployed lunatic then – had a gun?

    Or that it’s no problem in Arkansas and most other locales thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court to get a gun?

    Or that with all these lunatics walking around with Scalia-approved hardware, any one of us could be the next shooting victim?

    Okay, I admit that guns don’t kill people. Lunatics with guns kill people,

    But there’s no shortage of either luntics or guns.

    Crankily yours,
    The New York Crank

    But of course, we wouldn’t want to violate any lunatic’s “right” to bear arms, right? I mean, if a few people get shot for nothing here and there, what’s the problem?

    Crankily yours,
    The New York Crank

  • Why is it that every time someone gets shot someone quicky pulls the “oh no, he had a gun” card? You may be ok with the idea of nobody but the government and crooks having guns but this liberal, quite simply, isn’t.

    But then I suppose you’re the kind of liberal who thinks a quality scope or barrel bipod counts as an “assault weapon”, right?

  • The speculation here sounds a little like the wingnuts assuming every random shooting is done by an islamofascistterroristnazi. i understand the concern, even fear, that these kinds of attacks will increase as rightwing conspiracy radio bumps into the reality of an increasingly progressive American public, but it’s best to wait for facts rather than jumping (at least publicly) to conclusions.

  • …targeting liberals for their ideology…

    For the record, liberalism is not an ideology. An ideology is a faith-based set of doctrines or beliefs (e.g. conservatism) which are unaffected by facts or reason.

  • …targeting liberals for their ideology…

    For the record, liberalism is not an ideology. An ideology is a faith-based set of doctrines or beliefs (e.g. conservatism) which are unaffected by facts or reason.

    Please consult the dictionary before you make ideologically based attacks or snarky comments. It works a lot better when you are, you know, correct…

  • “But then I suppose you’re the kind of liberal who thinks a quality scope or barrel bipod counts as an “assault weapon”, right?”
    –Damien (See above)

    Hey Damien,

    As a matter of fact, I’m the kind of liberal who thinks anything that fires bullets is an assault weapon. But I’ll grant you that I think you’re not firing off anything except your mouth.

    Crankily yours,
    The New York Crank

  • Damian said, “Please consult the dictionary before you make ideologically based attacks or snarky comments. It works a lot better when you are, you know, correct…”

    i·de·ol·o·gy:
    1. the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group.
    2. such a body of doctrine, myth, etc., with reference to some political and social plan, as that of fascism, along with the devices for putting it into operation.
    3. Philosophy. a. the study of the nature and origin of ideas.
    b. a system that derives ideas exclusively from sensation.
    4. theorizing of a visionary or impractical nature.

    Despite Damian’s lack of attention to detail, his dictionary definition (above) actually confirmed the abbreviated definition I offered, which again, would indicate that liberalism is not an ideology since, unlike conservatism, liberalism is not a “body of doctrine, myth or belief”, nor does liberalism involve theorizing of a “impractical nature” (again, unlike conservatism).

    In fact, modern liberalism is the opposite of these things. The word is simply short-hand for positions held which are common among those on left of the political spectrum. These positions would have been arrived at independently and would have arisen out of, again, facts and reason…not a “body of doctrine, myth or belief that guides” us.

    Note to Damian: Please consult the dictionary before you make ideologically based attacks or snarky comments. It works a lot better when you are, you know, correct…

    What a dick.

  • With both parties dead there is no way the true motivation for the murder will ever be known. We will be subjected to (mindless) speculation, and these days someone has to be severely impaired to believe what either the MSM decides the narrative is, or what government agencies decide is the ‘official’ explanation. Usually they are the same. There may be an obvious cause-and-effect connection, but I’m not holding my breath or believing what I’m told.

  • “Liberals” are so predictable. In this case, they have blamed just about everybody else above and beyond the shooter.

    It’s called personal responsibility, guys. Look into it.

  • Btw, ignore this one. Keep on ranting about “the right wing radio types” and pay no attention to the 29 year old Muslim Somali found in a Denver hotel room with a pound of cyanide barely a week before the Democratic National Convention. You don’t want to be accused of being a “bigot”. It is so much easier to talk shit on the people you know won’t hurt you, so continue doing just that and go back to sleep.

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