Hannity must really want to keep a GOP majority

I know Fox News’ Sean [tag]Hannity[/tag] is probably a little nervous about this year’s midterm elections, but I didn’t know he was this nervous.

On the August 29 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Fox News host Sean Hannity sought to encourage Republican voters and candidates to ensure a Republican victory in the November midterm elections by proclaiming that “there are things in life worth fighting and dying for, and one of ’em is making sure” that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) “doesn’t become the speaker.”

Really? Hannity believes his listeners should be prepared to sacrifice themselves to prevent a Democratic House majority? That’s taking the elections seriously. I’m anxious about the campaign cycle, too, and I’d really like to see a Dem majority in Congress, but I’m nowhere near the point of believing that stopping Dennis Hastert from keeping the Speaker’s gavel is a cause worth dying for.

Speaking of conservatives and death-related hyperbole, Ann Coulter hasn’t joked about assassinating anyone in several weeks. What do you know; the streak is over.

In her most recent syndicated column, Coulter commented on the Rhode Island Senate race and criticized incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), whom she described as a “moron.” Her piece was headlined, “They Shot the Wrong Lincoln.”

As Media Matters noted, Coulter has a penchant for recommending death for those with whom she disagrees.

* Commenting on radio host Melanie Morgan’s assertion that if New York Times executive editor Bill Keller were convicted of treason she “would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber,” Coulter said, “I prefer a firing squad, but I’m open to a debate on the method of execution.” She later suggested that Times staff members should be “executed.”

* Coulter said of the media: “Would that it were so! … That the American military were targeting journalists.”

* Coulter suggested that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) is “the reason soldiers invented fragging,” — military slang meaning the intentional killing of a member of one’s own unit.

* Coulter argued that the national debate during the Monica Lewinsky controversy should not have focused on whether former President Bill Clinton “did it,” but rather “whether to impeach or assassinate” him.

* [tag]Coulter[/tag] said of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: “We need somebody to put rat poison in Justice Stevens’s créme brulée.”

You know, I’m having trouble thinking of a liberal pundit who jokes about assassinating presidents, Supreme Court justices, and members of Congress, and who manages to repeatedly get invited back onto the air. Hmm.

Coulter gets airtime and column inches why?

On the original topic, we should convince die hard Republicans (starting with Hannity and Coulter) to strap on a suicide vest and run into the nearest Wal Mart for every baby murdered by abortion! This would allow them to die for a cause they believe in, exact some revenge for the 36 cells that never got a chance, damage Wal Mart’s profitability, and get rid of Hannity and Colter and everyone who would concider doing what i just suggested. Its a win-win-win-win!

  • On Hannity: Why am I reminded of National Lampoon’s “Buy This Magazine or We’ll Shoot This Dog”? I hope we don’t see him standing outside a polling booth in November with a gun against his own temple.

  • My problem with Hannity’s “it’s worth dying for” is that it is so easy to convert this in the minds of wingnuts to “It’s worth killing for”. It was certainly not hard in 2000 and 2004 for wingnuts to decide it was worth cheating at the polls for, especially when they believe the Democrats cheat first.

    There is a scene from Ben Kingsley’s protrayal of Ghandi where he says “I’m willing to die for my cause, but I am not willing to kill for my cause”. That’s a sentiment not shared by the radical right in this country.

  • I think it is important to ignore Coulter. She is a joke and I think she realizes she is a joke but her claim to fame is to be so far off the deep end that she gets noticed.

    But, having said that: Does the name Tawana Brawley ring a bell?

    We let Al Sharpton run for President. How much more seriously do we treat Sharpton than they treat Coulter?

  • Personally, I feel that a sane way to look at elections is “live another day, fight another battle”. But Hannity is entittled to his own opinion; we’re still in a democracy, no?

  • “But Hannity is entittled to his own opinion; we’re still in a democracy, no?” – libra

    The limitation of free speach comes between expressing an opinion and inciting violence. Both Bitch Coulter and Whiner Hannity are close to the edge (IMHO).

  • The right does tend to be extremist these days (in contrast to fifty years ago when they questioned some liberal Democratss sanity). Coulter’s call for death everywhere, Hannity’s call for the ultimate sacrifice (for a political campaign?!), and … have you noticed? … only the right wing repeatedly blurts out “Love it, or leave it”, “My way or the highway”, and so on. This fits right in with the reich’s right’s increasingly unrealistic image of the world.

  • Lance makes a great point about the “willing to die for” becoming “willing to kill for” in the minds of many rightists. And suicide bombers.

    To steal a joke: Coulter must be worried about the elections too. Notice the long face?

    I wonder what she yells during moments of passion? (If she has any.)

  • Hannity’s comment is this close to the first right-wing Christianist advocation of suicide bombing.

    I’m predicting right here and now that we will see an actual right-wing Christianist suicide bombing in this country in the run-up to the ’08 elections (especially if Hillary’s on the ticket).

  • neil, good point about Sharpton.
    Tawana was an embarassment, but Sharpton still had the guts to throw his hat into the ring, and face the debate about his worthiness to be elected.
    Do you think Coulter & Hannity has this type of courage? Somehow, I doubt it, but it’s a good bet that Annie has the ‘nads (literally, not metaphorically).
    (insert rimshot here)
    Sorry, couldn’t resist.

  • My question is why has not the secret service paid her a visit? If any one else made public comments calling for the death, execution or harm to public officials such as former presidents, supreme court justices or sitting senators they would be up our respective backsides pronto.

  • Confidence Man may well be right about the Xtian bombing. If they were truly suicide bombings and not homicide bombings I’d say more (explosive) power to them (as long as they don’t accidentally burn a flag of course)

    If the Israeli/Palestinian conflict hadn’t been allowed to drag out so many years we may not have seen this particular innovation in resistance used so much these days. I guess the lesson is: don’t ignore that lump.

  • This is just the “eliminationist” rhetoric of the far right that proves they are fascists. Orsinus has a great series of articles on eliminationism as a righty fantasy. Further proof if proof was necessary that that scumsucking bitch has her head up her…

  • Hannity does nothing more in his little tirade but to expose the definition of cowardice. He has no problem telling his audience th “fight and die” for the GOP—but he’s the first to “cut-n-run” when it comes to putting his own words into actions. This is typical of any fascist organization—loud-mouthed leaders hiding behind their flock, driving them ever onward to the sacrificial altar. As for “Canned-Ham” Coulter? She’s always good for a death threat—until the motion of those threats is toward her, rather than away….

  • Dale, your cancer metaphor — don’t ignore that lump — is really, really spot-on.

    Now that I think about my prediction, though, it’s probably more likely that any such event would happen either after the GOP loses one/both houses this fall, or after the Dems take the WH in ’08. Recall the relative calm of the wingnuts under Reagan and Bush I, and the metastasization of right-wing violence during Clinton’s terms.

  • …there are things in life worth fighting and dying for…

    I’m glad Hannity feels that way. I expect the fat, demented slob to be in line at his local recruiter tomorrow. They’ll whip his gelatinous posterior into shape and have him in Iraq in no time flat.

  • Hannity and Coulter – juggernauts working against American democracy. Make that new bumpersticker right out of your own piece of Contact Paper:

    Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter are UNAMERICAN in thought and deed!

    I can’t believe how our MSM corporate world has allowed for such unAmerican sentiment so gratuitously on their networks. Both of these infotainers – Hannity and Coulter – would be quite in their comfort zones if our president’s first name was Adolph! They are truly authoritarian in nature, yet each is such a coward! -Kevo

  • It is refreshing to see her wanting the head of a republican this time.

    Lance. Great Quote.

    It’s ‘shock’ rhetoric and everyone knows it. These people have their 15 mins and then they go away. The only thing they have to offer is shock, never substance. They have to continually step it up to shock. And there in lays the problem, you can only shock so much before you desensitize and/or go too far and that is where Coulter is heading and Fox is chasing right behind her.

  • Edo wrote:
    I wonder what she yells during moments of passion? (If she has any.)

    “Air assault”?

    LOL

  • With the FCC so concerned about offensive content on our TV sets and on the radio, why aren’t Coulter and Hannity getting fined? Death threats and incitement to violence are much more offensive than a flash of nipple … but then the right hates sex and loves violence.

  • I wonder what she yells during moments of passion? (If she has any.)
    “Air assault”?

    Comment by Edo

    LOL Perfect. And consdering the Limbaughgian cannon fodder that might charge into Coulter’s breech and if she is really feeling it, maybe, “Hot air assault.”

  • Few things are as dangerous as a cornered animal. Hannity sounds like one of them.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some wingnuts go postal if the Dems sweep the Rethugs.

  • Recall the relative calm of the wingnuts under Reagan and Bush I, and the metastasization of right-wing violence during Clinton’s terms.

    Comment by The Confidence Man

    Damn good point! I can’t help but hold on to the idea that suicide bombing is an act of desperation (although who knew so many people were willing to blow themselves up for next to nothing). And as racerx pointed out the wingnuts are going to be dangerous when they perceive their grand experiment of “conservative” governing collapsing under the weight of its own corruption.

    Since the Bushites always like to believe up is down, their Red Dawn moment might come when the government DOESN’T turn into a fascist takeover.

  • I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some wingnuts go postal if the Dems sweep the Rethugs. -Racerx

    I know that I’ll go postal is the repubs magically sweep the dems on election night in the face of popular polling predictions.

    If they are desperate enough to die for the house, they are certainly willing to cheat for it. Cornered rats are capable of anything.

  • To Hannity, Coulter, and their fellow Republican extremists, it just shows their perverted sense of what true democracy calls for. They are callous, self-righteous bigots who are trying to transform the United States into a dictatorial theocracy and dissuade Americans from exercising their constitutional rights to vote and express peaceful dissent.

    Their actions to subvert true democratic principles, including making those in power accountable for their actions through constitutional checks and balances, are truly unconstitutional, un-American, and alarming. May true democracy be restored to our shores as a hopeful result of democratic elections of ’06 and ’08.

  • If Hambone thinks preventing Nancy Pelosi from becoming Speaker is worth dying for, I’d be happy to oblige him. He can spend eternity getting hummers from little Miss Adams Apple.

  • While the Religious Right and neoconservatives all complain about the “big, bad Liberal Press (Media),” from my standpoint, the so-called “Liberal Press” are in the minority (at least now), and the majority seem to veer to the conservative viewpoint or, at least, give and get more publicity of the conservative Republicans currently in power.

    Should we truly be wary of, and call the majority of the outspoken press, the “Conservative” or “Right-Wing Press (Media)” rather than the highly touted, misnomered “Liberal Press (Media)”?

    Again, to my standpoint, in an America that lives up to its high, truly democratic ideals, all sides of the political spectrum should have equal exposure in the media–neither side vilified.

  • Why worry about what Hannity thinks is worth fighting and dying for? Anyone with the courage to fight and die for Hannity’s causes is already in Iraq.

  • “Why worry about what Hannity thinks is worth fighting and dying for? Anyone with the courage to fight and die for Hannity’s causes is already in Iraq.” – robertl

    Because those willing to kill and maim in Hannity’s cause are living right here in America.

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