‘Push their heads under the water … until they cannot breathe’

by Steve Benen

As the end of an election cycle nears, it’s not uncommon for emotions to run high among those in the political arena. The combination of excitement and anxiety leads to frayed nerves and occasional lapses in judgment.

The result is predictable: wingnuts who use language they probably shouldn’t. Take this report, for example, published Monday morning by New Hampshire Public Radio.

If you are seeking nuance or restraint, you won’t find it at a get-out-the-vote rally on the Sunday before a tight election.

Here’s State repugican cabal chairwimp Jennifer Horn other night in Manchester:

“This is our time. We need to crush it. We need to grab it, run with it, push their heads under over and over again until they cannot breathe anymore, until the elections are over Tuesday night.”

How charming.

Now, before anyone sends me angry emails, I realize that the chair of the New Hampshire repugican cabal was not literally (or is she) calling for the murder of local Democrats.

But can reasonable people agree that it’s more than a little over the top when a state cabal chair calls for pushing rivals’ heading “under the water over and over again until they cannot breathe anymore”? Maybe there’s some other, less-homicidal metaphor wingnuts can use?

A Democratic source provided this first look at this YouTube clip of Horn’s comments from the other day. Note, the repugican crowd applauded the rhetoric. (The footage was originally captured by Manchester Ink Link publisher Carol Robidoux),