Giffords Is Centrist Who Defies Political Labels

[dkf]

(Updates that Giffords is former Republican in fourth paragraph, Palin's view of Giffords from 10th.)

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Arizona U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was one of 19 Democrats to withhold support from their party's leader, Nancy Pelosi, as the U.S. House of Representatives chose a new speaker Jan. 5.

Giffords, who was seriously wounded yesterday by a gunman while attending a meeting with constituents in Tucson, cast her vote for Georgia Representative John Lewis as the new Republican-controlled House picked John Boehner of Ohio to be the new speaker. She was one of two Democrats to vote for Lewis, a veteran of the 1960s civil rights movement.

The protest vote against Pelosi, who led House Democrats to defeat in last November's election, was largely conducted by members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats that includes Giffords among its members. She voted against legislation in 2009 to bail out auto companies such as General Motors Co.

Yet, like Pelosi, one-time Republican Giffords, 40, is a supporter of abortion rights, stem-cell research and other social issues favored by more liberal Democrats. She voted last month to overturn the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military. She voted for the health-care legislation last year that was Pelosi's crowning legislative achievement as speaker.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2011%2F01%2F08%2Fbloomberg1376-LEQJ4Q07SXKX01-40U6PGDDSCP8BPK3G29DME1K2V.DTL

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[dkf]

2. And then there is Mentally ill.

How do you classify that on the political spectrum?

[Name removed]

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[dkf]

5. Yet wouldn't those psychological problems push a person to a certain ideology, especially paranoia?

[Statistical]

17. Schizophrenics rarely subscribe to any fixed ideology.

By definition they can't integrated into a concrete group. Their ideas and concepts are often so juxtaposed and confusing they wouldn't make friends in any group with strong ideology.

They intend tend to create their own reality. Often the concepts are larger than life. Paranoia is common as is a feeling of perscution by a large entity.

They tend to choose large simplistic concepts are their oppressors. "The government" (note the suspect never named parties in his rambling), the UN/world government, the military/pentagon, the courts/police, secret agents, corporations.

Rarely is it more defined than that. You won't find a Schizophrenic who feels that socially liberal, but fiscally conservative blue dog-democrats are trying to control him/her.

It is merely "the government'. The Congresswoman was part of the "the government" thus was the enemy.

[Rex]

15. Actually you are completely wrong. The Right side of the isle has

blood on their hands...the left does not. Nice try. :eyes:

[mmonk]

3. Not in the minds of tea party members and rightwing media.

The world they have conjured up in the minds of their partisans does not represent the reality of the gray areas of the Democratic Party.

[Name removed]

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[mmonk]

9. Who here would say she is worse?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. She was clearly a Southwest Democrat

which is why if you were going to rationally target a Dem for assassination, she would be low on the list. Her positions are:
- Pro gun
- Pro military
- Pro 1070 (AZ anti illegal alien law)
- Pro choice
- Pro gay rights
- Voted against Pelosi for Minority leader
- Voted with the President on health care reform.

Not exactly your typical northeast liberal democrat, but clearly representative of her district. It also means she should have been less of a target than other more liberal members of Congress, if the targeting was rational.

[dkf]

8. Yes.

It could be she was a target more as a representative of the Government than anything else.

[mmonk]

12. Which is perceived as liberal, progressive, or socialist by the right.

[dkf]

14. That may be true.

Odd how Republicans dont get singed out with responsibility for the Government

[Name removed]

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[treestar]

10. Interesting, as the progressives would have wanted her out of office

And considered her no different from an R.

[dkf]

13. She used to be a Republican.

I would really like to hear why this fellow targeted her.

[Rex]

16. No different, except that she is a Democratic representative now.

So I guess you are completely wrong.

[treestar]

19. I'm right. She's a Blue Dog.

In fact after the 2010 election there were threads celebrating their demise (even though it cost us the Speakership).

Now that she is a victim of a shooting does not let the progressives off the hook for wanting her defeated in the election. They don't get to make her their martyr.

[mmonk]

20. There is a difference between us and the right.

Thanks for reminding me why I am changing to unaffiliated.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Yup and we don't murder them either