Violent rhetoric against a Democratic president...in 1994.

[CBHagman]

Surely I can't be the only DUer who remembers the days when the then-prospective GOP chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms (R-NC), said the following about Bill Clinton, then in his first term.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E4D71F31F930A15752C1A962958260

Just days after Mr. Helms, a Republican from North Carolina, created a furor by saying that President Clinton was not up to the job of Commander in Chief, he told The News and Observer, a newspaper in Raleigh: "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard."

(SNIP)

After several senators criticized the comment that Mr. Helms made to the Raleigh newspaper on Monday, he issued a statement in which he called it "an offhand remark" not meant to be taken literally.

(SNIP)

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, noted that today was the 31st anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "To suggest on this day of all days, Nov. 22d, that an American President's life might be in jeopardy because they were to visit an American military base would suggest that my colleague from North Carolina doesn't seem to know what country he's living in," Mr. Dodd said.

He criticized Mr. Helms for not formally apologizing and said the Republican leadership in Congress should demand an apology and repudiate Senator Helms's comments.

There you have it, folks -- violent rhetoric from someone who was both a member of the media and member of Congress, and a high-ranking one too -- indeed, regarded as a conservative icon.

Let this provide some context for today's discussion of political rhetoric.