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Michael Leahy of the Washington Post offers a California snapshot on the ideological war happening within the Republican Party. The protagonist is Assemblyman Anthony Adams, a humble sweater-donning "citizen politician." Despite his solidly conservative voting record, the GOP politician has been harassed by a right-wing recall effort all because he voted for Schwarzenegger's tax-increasing compromise budget.The story mentions that Adams became the target of frequent death threats, but glosses over the extent to which two unnamed conservative talk show hosts stirred up this extreme anger. John and Ken -- a wildly popular duo of "white men" who "have a right to be angry" -- come from the Glenn Beck school of political commentary. Apparently, as soon as Adams told the Sacramento Bee he was considering support of the budget weeks before the vote, John and Ken responded by circulating an image of Adams' decapitated head on a stick -- an image embraced by California's tea party protesters. In a Fault Lines documentary aired earlier this year, John excitedly described his exploits:
We were beating the governor in effigy. We had Governor Schwarzenegger naked and upside down as a piñata, and we had kids beating him with baseball bats until gold coins came out. [...] And then we were feeding him into a giant shredder mounted on the inside of a truck. And the first rally was particularly angry. People really were in a mood to kill. If we had given the signal, they would have stormed Fullerton and burned it down.Like Beck, John and Ken playfully blur the line between impassioned rhetoric and calls for political violence. When Sen. Lindsey Graham similarly violated conservative orthodoxy by reaching out to negotiate a climate change bill, he was met by an almost identical response. Shortly after Beck dubbed Graham a target, attack ads went on the air, a roving truck featured a dummy Graham being flushed down a toilet, enraged activists flooded his town halls, and a right-wing party chair issued a censure.But John and Ken aren't the only provocateurs in this recall drama. Former state party chair Mike Schroeder launched the crusade against Adams in the following fashion:
Schroeder presented Adams with formal papers announcing the recall bid at a fundraiser for the assemblyman. He told Adams that the campaign against him was started on behalf of the citizens of California. "Let the games begin," Schroeder proclaimed. Adams didn't have much to say to that. "Drive safely," he replied. Schroeder, who has a reputation for flamboyance, was dressed in a black "Star Wars" T-shirt with an image of Darth Vader on it.Sure, confrontation and flare can be helpful in galvanizing your party's base, but doesn't casting yourself as Darth Vader take away any semblance of seriousness from a policy dispute? Also, just saying -- you may want to wear the Luke shirt next time. --Lee Fang
