June 14, 2017 09:59 AM UTC

Majority Whip Steve Scalise Shot, Colorado Delegation Okay

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• by: Colorado Pols

Horrible story out of Washington D.C. that’s going to occupy most of the day’s news, as the Denver Post’s Mark Matthews reports:

No members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, or their staffs, were hurt in Wednesday morning’s shooting at a congressional baseball practice, which left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and several others wounded.

The shooting happened in Alexandria, Virginia, where the GOP congressional baseball team was practicing. No Colorado Republicans play on the team, and the state’s congressional delegation has reported their staffs are OK after conducting a full roll call.

The shooter has been identified as James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, whose social media profiles contain lots of anti-Donald Trump and pro-Bernie Sanders material. Hodgkinson apparently has a lengthy criminal record. Previously reported to be in custody, it’s since been reported that Hodgkinson was killed in an exchange of gunfire with responding police.

Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is in stable condition at a local hospital, and a congressional aide who was also wounded is expected to recover.

With that, we wish Rep. Scalise a speedy recovery, and implore everybody on both sides to be more thoughtful about the consequences of our mutually incendiary rhetoric. It’s no less true when a right-wing crackpot shoots up a Planned Parenthood clinic than when a left-wing crackpot takes aim at a Republican elected official. Our politics are only better than this…until they aren’t anymore.

And none of us wants to see what that looks like.