It’s been just over a year since the tragic shooting in Tucson that took nine lives and nearly killed Gabrielle Giffords. You’d think, by now, that the tone of rhetoric would have changed, that people would be careful of what they say so as not to put ideas into the heads of more whackjobs like Jared Loughner.

You’d think.

Rep. John Sullivan, (R-OK) made the following statement on Wednesday (via TPM  - see the video there)

Like I said, after this last election, the first order of business is pass a budget. Now, I believe that. I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate. Now I live with some Senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it — boy I’d love that. You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.

Yup. He even used his fingers to simulate a gun and pulling the trigger.

Of course, the apology was issued with the usual “poor choice of words” and “does not condone violence” disclaimers. Really? What exactly does he think would have been the “best” choice of words? People don’t make these kind of “mistakes” and poor choices of words. I caught my daughter dropping the s-bomb a couple of weeks ago. She said it was an accident. As I explained to her, the only way that it was an “accident” is if she is using that word so much in other situations, that she “accidentally” used it in front if me. You don’t accidentally say something you don’t normally say.

And that’s the case here. It wasn’t poor choice of words. He uses these phrases every day. That’s why he “chose poorly”. He got caught saying in public, on camera, what he likely says all the time. And he wouldn’t have apologized if he hadn’t gotten caught.

That’s where the rhetoric is nowadays. And these guys think that if they just issue an apology, that somehow it makes it ok. They take no responsibility for the fact that these kinds of statements fuel the hatred, fuel the violent rhetoric. It’s not what he got caught saying – it’s that he would even think about saying it. He didn’t just say, metaphorically, that he’d have to hold a gun to their heads. He went the extra step to say he might even have to kill them.

This is Oklahoma. Site of the biggest domestic terrorist attack on US soil. You’d think, after the Oklahoma City bombings, after the attacks in Tucson, that this idiot would get the clue that talking about killing someone because they won’t do things your way is just a bad, bad idea. But these guys don’t get it. They don’t. And they don’t want to. They don’t believe they have any responsibility.

Until the next “isolated incident” happens. Until someone else dies because some crackpot decides that the people who disagree with him just need to die. But of course, he doesn’t advocate violence.

He just wants to talk like he does.