Sen. Claire McCaskill is receiving extra security after a comment at a recent Tea Party rally that has been construed as a potential threat. At an event Thursday in Springfield, Mo., Scott Boston, a St. Louis area activist who has been involved with the Tea Party, told the crowd "we have to get Claire McCaskill out." "We have to kill the Claire Bear ladies and gentlemen," Boston said. "She walks around like she's some sort of Rainbow Brite Care Bear or something but really she's an evil monster."
The comment was seen as ominous enough to prompt the U.S. Capitol Police to seek extra protection for the Missouri Democrat.
On Tuesday, Boston said he did not intend the comment as a threat — only a metaphor for puncturing McCaskill's political persona."I was comparing her to like a giant Care Bear," Boston said in an interview. "If I said anything, I said, 'We need to kill the Claire Bear,' this idea that Claire McCaskill is this wonderful person running around doing great things for us."
Boston said that "in no way do I think the senator should be at all harmed."
On Tuesday, Steelman came to Boston's defense, blaming the "liberal media" that, she says, employs a double-standard when it comes to covering political rhetoric that contain a hint of violence."I may disagree with the words Mr. Boston chose in his statement," Steelman said in her own statement, "but I understand his frustration and I emphatically support his right to express his views."
I'm not going to do the sick gag that I originally planned (it involved using similar language with weaselly qualifications about all tea-party members) because that's the strategy that got me booted off Where Are My Keys. So instead, let me offer this:
We are Americans and we have a right to use whatever speech we want. It one of the things that makes us the greatest nation in the world. But from a perspective outside the tea party let me tell you that you come off like thugs when you use this kind of rhetoric. It's scary. And unless your goal is to govern through fear, it marginalizes you.
Okay I'm done. Your turn to talk.
We are Americans and we have a right to use whatever speech we want. It one of the things that makes us the greatest nation in the world. But from a perspective outside the tea party let me tell you that you come off like thugs when you use this kind of rhetoric. It's scary. And unless your goal is to govern through fear, it marginalizes you.
Okay I'm done. Your turn to talk.
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