Gunsights or surveyor symbols?

By Glenn Kessler

"We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights...It's a surveyor's symbol" --Rebecca Mansour, an aide to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin



The assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) has spawned a lot of political finger-pointing, with left-wing bloggers especially taking aim at Palin's map of 20 House Democrats--including Giffords--representing districts won by the GOP presidential ticket who voted for the health care bill. It now turns out that the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, appears to have had an animus for Giffords dating back to 2007, long before Palin posted the map on her Facebook page last March. So despite media efforts to draw larger meaning from the tragedy, the charge that Palin's map had anything to do with the shooting is bogus. But what about the defense?

The Facts

Military imagery has long been a staple of political rhetoric--and of political journalese. A "campaign" is "waged" against the opponent, with key "targets" of opportunity. The Democratic Leadership Council, for instance, in 2004 published a map titled "Targeting Strategy" describing states won by then President Bush by single digit margins as "behind enemy lines." The DLC put colored bullseyes on each of the nine red states that it said showed promise for a Democratic turnover.

Palin's map is of a similar vein, though it is more personal. The markers on the map, showing the location of the congressional districts, look like the crosshairs of a rifle sight, and it was accompanied by a list of names. The DLC map had bullseyes on states, not people.

Still, did Palin intend these to be gun sights? The design is pretty simple, just two lines crossed in a circle, allowing some on the right to argue that these are surveyor symbols. Palin aide Mansour readily agreed with this notion when she was interviewed Sunday by conservative radio host Tammy Bruce.

But this seems like an after-the-fact excuse.

Would Sarah Palin, known for her love of guns, really instruct an advertising agency to place "surveyor symbols" on her map of political targets? On her March 23 Facebook posting that accompanied the map, Palin wrote: "We'll aim for these races and many others. This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington."

Certainly, Palin raised no public objection when people, including Giffords, at the time said they thought the map showed gun sights.

"We're on Sarah Palin's Targeted list," Giffords told MSNBC in March, after the door of her Tucson office was smashed after her vote in favor of the health care bill. "But the thing is the way she has it depicted, it has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district and when people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action." Giffords, however, demurred when the interviewer noted that such imagery has long been a staple of politics and asked whether Palin really meant it. "I can't say, I'm not Sarah Palin," Giffords replied.

Similarly, on "The View," co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck--who campaigned with Palin in 2008--on March 25 labeled the map as "purely despicable." She added: "The names that are next to and being highlighted by those crosshairs, I think it's an abuse of the Second Amendment. I also feel as though every single person on here is a mother, a father, a friend, a brother, a sister, and to take it to this level is--it's disappointing to see this come from the Party, and I would hope that leaders like Sarah Palin would end this."

Finally, here's what Palin herself tweeted on Nov. 4 when the election results came in and all but two of those lawmakers on her list had either quit or been defeated: "Remember months ago "bullseye" icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin' incumbent seats? We won 18 out of 20 (90% success rate;T'aint bad)"

The Pinocchio Test

It's impossible to know exactly what Palin had in mind unless correspondence with the mapmaker is ever released. But sometimes perception is reality. It's outrageous to suggest Palin had anything to do with the tragic events in Tucson but it's silly for her aides to claim she did not intend these to be gunsights. They can defend it, or apolgize, but they shouldn't pretend otherwise.



One Pinocchio

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UPDATE, Jan. 18:

Palin acknowledged to Fox News that the symbols were intended to be "crosshairs."

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