March 31, 2010 04:32 PM UTC

Actually, We Like You In "The Crosshairs"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Nothing but game face from Rep. John Salazar’s Republican challengers over Sarah Palin placing him in her now-infamous “crosshairs,” the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

Sarah Palin’s targeting of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District will backfire on the two Republicans vying to run against Democrat incumbent John Salazar,  according to Salazar’s campaign.

Campaign spokesman Ronnie Carleton also called on those Republicans to “publicly disavow (Palin) for what she said.”

That request misfired, both Republicans, Bob McConnell and Scott Tipton, said.

Palin last week listed the 3rd Congressional District as one that should be held by Republicans based on the fact she and GOP presidential standard-bearer John McCain carried it in 2008, Palin said on her blog.

Palin’s telling conservatives “to ‘reload,’ and ‘targeting’ the congressman and placing him within her ‘cross hairs’ was a most unfortunate choice of words, given the political environment right now,” Carleton said in a statement.

Palin’s attack “is only going to further energize our supporters,” Carleton said.

McConnell scoffed at Carleton’s comment.

“Of course Salazar wants me to repudiate Sarah Palin,” he said in an e-mail. “My guess is he’s starting to understand that his seat is not only vulnerable, but gone.”

There are times when people in the heat of a campaign can still acknowledge that a political attack has been carried too far, that the symbols and rhetoric employed for such an attack are not appropriate–or even counterproductive if the electorate tires of your nonstop rage.

The plan this election cycle seems to be to double down on the rhetoric and apologize for nothing. Either it will work, with long-term consequences for political discourse in America, or we’re seeing the high water mark right now–and a backlash against this over-the-top belligerence is coming.

In the case of Rep. Salazar, who remains very popular in his Western Slope district and for all this cheap bravado faces amateur opponents, we are still predicting the latter.