PALIN MORE FORGIVING OF SOME KINDS OF TERRORISM…. Given all the recent talk from the McCain campaign about domestic terrorism in the 1960s, NBC’s Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin a good question last night: “Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist, under this definition, governor?”
Palin, seemingly annoyed by the question, responded, “There’s no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our U.S. Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. There is no question there. Now others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to, I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word ‘terrorist’ there, but it’s unacceptable and it would not be condoned on our watch.”
Have we really reached the point at which the Republican ticket wants to parse the meaning of the word “terrorist”?
I was curious about the dictionary definition of the word: “The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.” Sounds about right.
Given this, we have an organized group of activists who feel justified killing American physicians and bombing hundreds of doctors’ offices on U.S. soil because they don’t like a legal, medical procedure. “I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word ‘terrorist’ there.” Why, pray tell, not? And does John McCain, who sat silently during the exchange, agree with this?
Actually, he might. ThinkProgress noted a couple of weeks ago that McCain has “repeatedly voted against protecting Americans from domestic terrorists carrying out violence at abortion clinics.”
There’s a striking disconnect here. Obama has denounced Ayers’ crimes, and labeled Ayers’ acts “terrorism.” The Republican ticket, however, is reluctant to do the same when it comes to a different kind of domestic terrorism.
