So here’s what Martin O’Malley is sending out today to his email list:
I’m pissed.
I’m pissed that after an unthinkable tragedy like the one in South Carolina yesterday, instead of jumping to act, we sit back and wait for the appropriate moment to say what we’re all thinking: that this is not the America we want to be living in.
I’m pissed that we’re actually asking ourselves the horrific question of, what will it take? How many senseless acts of violence in our streets or tragedies in our communities will it take to get our nation to stop caving to special interests like the NRA when people are dying?
I’m pissed that after working hard in the state of Maryland to pass real gun control—laws that banned high-magazine weapons, increased licensing standards, and required fingerprinting for handgun purchasers—Congress continues to drop the ball.
He then goes on, without further allusions to urination, to talk about sensible gun legislation, and then, of course, because this is what campaign emails do, ask for money and support.
BTW, the subject line of the email, in case you were wondering, is “I’m pissed.”
I think I’ve made it reasonably clear that I, too, am exceptionally upset by the events in Charleston and the GOP’s reaction to them. If you asked me if I was “pissed,” I’d probably answer in the affirmative, but it wouldn’t much occur to me to write it up that way. And as a matter of fact, having spent some time in meetings with Martin O’Malley over the years, I can’t quite imagine him saying he was “pissed” five times in five sentences.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m by no means getting moralistic about this, though I do wonder if some good church-going Iowa Democrats might be a tad offended. I only bring it up as an example of the eternal gulf between candidates and their direct mail solicitations, which are quite often crafted as a war cry from somewhere deep in a fever swamp. Maybe the actual candidates should read them every once in a while. It’s possible O’Malley did just that, and was okay with it, because he’s pissed. But I doubt it.
