WASHINGTON–Under fire after the shooting of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Sarah Palin defended the fundraising efforts of her SarahPAC organization during the recent midterm elections. Her group received criticism for using the campaign slogan “Murder Congress.”
“We reject the notion that we’re to blame in any way for the tragedy this past weekend,” said Palin aide Rebecca Mansour. “We merely meant the sweeping changes we have planned for Washington would be the metaphorical equivalent of mass murder, in that it would ‘slay’ many of the liberal member of Congress. I don’t understand how you can take a perfectly innocent motivational phrase like ‘murder Congress’ and twist it into somehow advocating violence.”
Mansour also denied the campaign’s artwork was inflammatory “The symbols we drew over certain congresspersons’ heads are being interpreted by some PC types as bullseyes, simply because they are circles with crosshairs, partially colored in with red blobs that vaguely resemble blood. This was simply our homage to the title sequences of the classic James Bond movies. How on earth you could mistake that for anything else is beyond me.”
Palin’s campaign efforts are now drawing scrutiny because Giffords was specifically targeted by SarahPAC. The former Alaska governor appeared at an event for the congresswoman’s opponent, Jesse Kelly, that was advertised in local newspapers as “The Someone Should Probably Shoot Gabrielle Giffords, Just Sayin’ Festival and Tractor Pull”.
“The word ‘shoot’ has many connotations,” Mansour said. “We meant someone should shoot her with a camera, and those photos would show her for the Obama-loving neo-Socialist she is.”
The campaign event featured a firing range where guests could take target practice on life-size effigies of Giffords, with weapons ranging from Glock handguns to grenade launchers. But Mansour insisted, “It takes quite a leap of logic to insist this was anything other than a fun carnival game. Naturally, the liberal media is blowing this all out of proportion. I’m sure it won’t be long before they read something sinister into the fact that the winners of the target practice contest won free Colt .45s and maps to Giffords’ house.”
“Frankly, I’m shocked at how many liberals are seeking to politicize this tragedy. As far as we know, this terrible act was committed by a lone nut, and as we all know, lone nuts are in no way affected by the general political atmosphere. I don’t see how an unstable person could be influenced by anything Sarah may have tweeted or put on her web site.”
Mansour would not comment on any particular tweet or other web content produced by Palin because “all this completely non-incendiary, innocent comment has been removed in the last 24 hours.”
A FOX News spokesman says it will continue to feature Palin on its programs, despite the controversy, but is looking into suing Giffords for defamation of character.