INCITING WOULD-BE ASSASSINS

Look at what's on that T-shirt.
People are buying it and wearing it.

It's from the Bible, Psalm 109. 8.

"Let his days be few, let another take his office ..."

Some shirts include the next line:

"May his children be orphans and his wife a widow."

Okay ... We've seen and heard the Tea Partiers," and "Birthers."
People shout " Obama's a Muslim." "Obama wasn't born in America." People shout out "You lie!" They talk about "Let's Secede From The Union." People say Obama's a Hitler, He's planning to euthanize our elders. We see pictures of him with his face painted white like the"Joker."

And more, even worse.

Now, a fringe element of the far right Republican Party seems to believe it has a license to incite threatening behavior in the name of God.

They've already called him the "Antichrist."

They've resorted to lies and intimidation, trying to stop every change that he's set in motion.

They're inciting violence, and they've got militias, with angry, unhinged people who are well armed.

Frank Schaeffer, best-selling author of two books on this looming threat, asks, "Has the Craziness hit a new high?" and quotes others who see a direct line from hate talk, to hate language:

"...Centrists like David Gergen are saying that enough is enough. David Gergen said that the racial attacks on Obama are reminiscent of the atmosphere leading to the killing of President Lincoln. Speaking for moderate progressives, Thomas Friedman wrote, in the New York Times, that he saw this same disturbing play of religious hate shortly before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Israel. And Roger Ebert warned of the rise of the fringe in the GOP and how they are undermining democracy..."

On those T-shirts, that you can buy for $16.95 each, that quote from Psalm 109.8, and 9 -- "Let his days be few ... Let his children be orphans and his wife a widow ..." -- the issue is the Fringe people invoking the God we believe in, to act as executioner of those with whom they disagree.

Since the day, the night, thousands gathered in Chicago's Grant Park and rejoiced with tears in their eyes, we've had joy and hope again. Obama won. He's the president. We want to believe that assassinations belong in the past, and the good man we elected will go on being what he is, and doing what he's doing, but can he -- will he be shot down by one of the crazies?

Here's a clip -- Frank Schaeffer and Rachel Maddow. They say what I've said, but say it better.