Discussing the purported reaction of liberal weblogs to the reported assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney, Newsradio 850 KOA host “Gunny” Bob Newman claimed on the February 27 broadcast of his show, "[I]f you have a policy difference with many liberals, they want you dead." Newman later stated, “This didn't used to happen in this country. But now these people are tolerated. And who's tolerating them? Their fellow liberals.” During his rant, however, Newman ignored the numerous instances when he and other conservative commentators have called for violent attacks on, or the murders of, liberals and Democrats.

As the Associated Press reported on February 27, “In what the Taliban claimed was an assassination attempt, a suicide bomber attacked the main gate of a U.S. military base Tuesday within earshot of Vice President Dick Cheney. The explosion killed 23 people, including two Americans, and delivered a propaganda blow that undercut the U.S. military and the weak Afghan government it supports.”

Following the reported assassination attempt, Newman claimed, “Today, the liberal blogs are filled with comments from hate-mongering, violent liberals who are very upset that the vice president survived the attack” in Afghanistan. Characterizing the purported reaction of some liberal blogs as “one of the most outrageous, sick, purely evil stories in American political history,” Newman further claimed, “The intolerant, violent, hateful, pro-assassination left in this country is out of control. If you feel differently about a politician's beliefs and policy, you just call for the conservative to be assassinated!”

However, numerous conservative commentators -- including Newman himself -- have called for violent attacks on, or the murders of, Democratic politicians or liberals who “have a different opinion” from theirs.

For example, on page 121 of his 2006 book Minefields to Microphones: Global Asymmetric Warfare, the Radical Left, and Winning the War on Terror (Paladin Press), Newman wrote that prominent Iraq war critic U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) is “fortunate” that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace “did not demolish him, skin him, and build a hula hoop out of Murtha's spinal column and a kayak out of his rib cage.” And because of Murtha's proposed troop withdrawal from Iraq, Newman claimed that many Marines “want his [Murtha's] head on a stake in the middle of the Marine Corps Commandant's lawn.” (p. 120)

Newman is hardly alone among conservatives in his “violent, hateful, pro-assassination” rhetoric. Others include:

• Syndicated columnist Ann Coulter argued in her 1998 book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (Regnery Publishing), that the national debate during the Monica Lewinsky controversy should not have focused on whether President Bill Clinton “did it,” but rather “whether to impeach or assassinate” him.
• Commenting on conservative radio host Melanie Morgan's previous assertion that if New York Times executive editor Bill Keller were convicted of treason she “would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber,” Coulter wrote in a July 12 column, “I prefer a firing squad, but I'm open to a debate on the method of execution." She later suggested as a guest on Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show that Times staff members should be "executed."
• On the July 6, 2006, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Coulter also suggested “putting rat poison in [U.S. Supreme Court] Justice [John Paul] Stevens's crème brûlée.”
• During the May 17, 2005, broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, host Bill O'Reilly said that the Los Angeles Times editorial board wouldn't understand his objection to legal representation for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until terrorists kill editorial page editor Michael Kinsley.
• Also on May 17, 2005, radio host Glenn Beck said he was “thinking about killing [filmmaker] Michael Moore” and pondered whether “I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it.”
• On the August 22, 2005, broadcast of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, Christian Coalition of America founder and host Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
• Referring to House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), KSFO co-host Melanie Morgan said on the November 14, 2006, broadcast of the Lee Rodgers & Melanie Morgan Program, “We've got a bull's-eye painted on her big, wide laughing eyes.” During the same broadcast Morgan also asserted that there are “700 days to start pushing conservative values and to start hitting back at the Democrats and slap the crap out of 'em.”

From the February 27 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show:

NEWMAN: True colors: how the liberal cat cannot change its stripes. In one of the most outrageous, sick, purely evil stories in American political history, liberals are lamenting the survival of Vice President Dick Cheney, whom the Taliban is claiming was the target of a suicide bomber yesterday at a military base in Afghanistan, where the vice president was visiting US forces.

[...]

Today, the liberal blogs are filled with comments from hate-mongering, violent liberals who are very upset that the vice president survived the attack. Their comments, gang, are stunning, shocking, repugnant, and very revealing -- for they show precisely what so many liberals are really like. If you have a different opinion than theirs, they want you dead. So much for the ludicrous lie that liberals are tolerant people who respect free speech, our Constitution, and the amazing experiment our Founding Fathers began back in 1776.

[...]

NEWMAN: The intolerant, violent, hateful, pro-assassination left in this country is out of control. If you feel differently about a politician's beliefs and policy, you just call for the conservative to be assassinated! And if a terrorist fails to blow the conservative into small shreds, you publicly say how disappointed and angry you are that the assassination attempt failed. And there is no outcry from the Democratic Party.

[...]

NEWMAN: That is just as troubling as the calls from liberals for the terrorists to try again. Where are their, where are their voices? Where are the normal liberals?

[...]

NEWMAN: Is it because they silently agree with the liberals yearning for Cheney to be killed?

[...]

NEWMAN: You see, if you have a policy difference with many liberals, they want you dead. 303-713-8585. And for those of you, maybe some of you were on -- you need to every day be checking liberal blogs. That's what I do Monday through Friday and oftentimes seven days a week, collecting information for this show. And when you read the hate and the intolerance and the violence, it is astounding.

[...]

NEWMAN: These are not patriots. These are anti-American enemies of our nation. Simply because you disagree with somebody's policy and politics you call for their assassination? 303-713-8585. I'm “Gunny” Bob on 850 KOA. This didn't used to happen in this country. But now these people are tolerated. And who's tolerating them? Their fellow liberals.