The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Hate Hoax in Arizona?

Posted on | October 22, 2010 | 6 Comments

Let’s wait for law enforcement to investigate this incident, but I’ll bet dollars to donuts that no Republican is responsible:

The FBI is investigating a toxic substance found inside a package that was sent to the office of Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, a spokesman for the congressman said.
Staffers checking mail in the congressman’s Tucson, Arizona, office Thursday found a white powdery substance and drawings of two swastikas inside an envelope, Grijalva campaign spokesman Adam Sarvana told CNN.
The Tucson Fire Department confirmed the substance inside the envelope was toxic, he said.
Almost a dozen people were inside the office at the time, he said. All of them were checked on-scene by local authorities and sent home.
Scientists at an FBI laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, are now conducting a full analysis of the substance, Sarvana said.

Arizona Nazis? Stipulating that such persons actually exist, why would they wait until two weeks before Election Day to perpetrate a crime like this? Here’s video from KVOA-TV in Tucson:

As the local reporter says, this incident occurred less than 24 hours after Grijalva debated his Republican opponent, Ruth McClung. How did that debate go for Grijalva?

The candidates in the tightening Congressional District 7 race gave voters some clear choices in a nearly two-hour debate in Rio Rico on Wednesday night. . . .
McClung supports school vouchers, saying parents deserve a choice. Grijalva doesn’t. “That will further rob our public schools of the resources they need to educate our children,” he said.
McClung supports a permanent Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 near Tubac, while Grijalva said mobility is important in making the checkpoint effective.
And while Grijalva said the border is more secure now than it has been in the past, McClung said the border is far from safe. “So far, all we seem to be getting from the federal government is lawsuits, and on top of that, we’re getting boycotts,” she said, contending her opponent’s early call for economic sanctions over Arizona’s new immigration law damaged the state.
The debate . . . came as the nationally respected, nonpartisan Cook Political Report dubbed the race a “tossup” and as the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been forced to spend money in a district that had long been considered safe.
Grijalva, other than saying the state’s economic woes cannot be laid exclusively at his feet, did not directly address his decision earlier this year to call for a limited boycott of conventions and conferences in the wake of the passage of the state’s controversial immigration law.

The state’s immigration law, SB-1070, is “controversial” only so far as “controversial” can be accepted as a synonym for “overwhelmingly popular” — favored by 70% of Arizona voters.

So you see that the narrative in local news, coming out of Wednesday’s debate, was that voters had a clear choice, that the race was now rated a tossup, and that Grijalva was trying to avoid talking about his call for a boycott of his own state. And within 24 hours, the story suddenly changes to swastikas and toxic powder?

“How the Left Fakes the Hate: A Primer,” by Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE: A Memeorandum thread, with reports by MSNBC and Politico. Grijalva’s offices have been threatened before, but this swastikas-and-toxic-powder business . . . well, question the timing.

Oliver Willis of Media Matters calls this “Tea Party Terrorism.”

Right. “Send the Body to Glenn Beck.”

UPDATE II: Keith Olbermann is certain that this is an attack by the Glennbeckistani Legion of Hate:

UPDATE III: Contrary to what Grijalva said, the suspicious powder was non-toxic, according to the FBI.

Category: Arizona, Crime, Election, Ruth McClung

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