Paul Pelosi Attacked

Yesterday, a man named David Depape broke into the residence of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and demanded to see her. That wasn't happening, since she wasn't home at the time. However, the Speaker's husband Paul was present, and so Depape assaulted him instead.

It is not hard to put two and two together and to ascertain that Depape's plan was to assassinate the Speaker. As it is, Paul Pelosi was badly injured, most obviously suffering a skull fracture. He is hospitalized right now, and while he is expected to recover, anything in the vicinity of the brain is always touchy, particularly for an octogenarian (he's 82).

And there appears to be more to the story than is currently known. When Pelosi called 911, he was ensconced in a bathroom, and he spoke to the operator in code, leaving her to ascertain that something was seriously wrong. She did, and assigned a high priority to the response, which San Francisco Police Chief William Scott described as a "life-saving" decision. Depape, for his part, has also been hospitalized, though it's not clear what injuries he suffered. He's already been charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, battery and burglary, and will be arraigned later this week.

This incident is the predictable result of the vitriolic rhetoric that has become commonplace in American politics in the last 5-10 years, particularly on the right, and particularly as directed at Pelosi, who has been more frequently targeted than any person not named Hillary Clinton. We're not the only ones who think so:

This morning’s terrifying attack on Paul Pelosi by a man obsessed with election conspiracies is a dangerous reality encouraged by some members of my own party.

I’m thankful he will be okay.

This must be condemned by every Member of Congress & candidate. Now. @SpeakerPelosi

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) October 28, 2022

In the short term, most Republican bigwigs are doing as Kinzinger proposes. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he's reached out to the Pelosis to express his support, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was "horrified and disgusted" by the attack.

Let's be honest, though—this is just a version of "thoughts and prayers." If these two men were really bothered by what happened, they would condemn the vitriol that issues forth so often from those on the right, both politicians and media members. They have no interest in doing that, of course. Heck, just this week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) spoke approvingly about private citizens shooting migrants. McCarthy and McConnell had nary a word to say in response.

More representative of what politicians on the right really think is what Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) said. Appearing at a rally on behalf of Yesli Vega, who is running to represent VA-07, decreed: "There's no room for violence anywhere, but we're gonna send her [Nancy Pelosi] back to be with him in California. That's what we're going to go do." In other words, "I have to pretend to be upset, but I'm not actually going to drop the Pelosi hate, even while her husband is lying in the ICU."

In short, this is going to be forgotten by the end of next week (and, very possibly, by the end of this week). Then, the questions will be: (1) Which political figure is going to be assaulted next? and (2) Will their attacker succeed in killing them? (Z)

Saturday Q&A

Sorry, we'd hoped to post some questions and answers eventually, but it just didn't work out.

Today's Senate Polls

At this point, the polls of Georgia can only tell us it's going to be close (and it's probably going to head to a runoff). Clearly, neither candidate is going to take a commanding lead. (Z)

State	Democrat	D %	Republican	R %	Start	End	Pollster
Georgia	Raphael Warnock*	45%	Herschel Walker	48%	Oct 27	Oct 27	InsiderAdvantage
New York	Chuck Schumer*	53%	Joe Pinion	40%	Oct 20	Oct 24	Emerson Coll.

* Denotes incumbent

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