Former U.S. Representative Paul E. Kanjorski

Back in October 2010, then Representative Kanjorski said,

"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."

Here is a part of Kanjorski's op-ed in today's NYTimes (this follows the shooting of a US Representative in AZ):

"....We all lose an element of freedom when security considerations distance public officials from the people. Therefore, it is incumbent on all Americans to create an atmosphere of civility and respect in which political discourse can flow freely, without fear of violent confrontation...."

He is a few months from calling for the execution of a person running for Governor of Florida (a person who was not charged with a crime by the way, a person who won election in that State and is the current Governor). Now he says to create an atmosphere of civility. I'm going to assume that he hasn't changed his mind about Governor Scott because there is no evidence of that. Therefore, I can't get out of calling Kanjorski a hypocrite.

It may be of interest why the NYTimes chose him, of all people, to pen an op-ed on civility. Maybe the NYTimes is too lazy to check Kanjorski out or maybe the NYTimes figured no one else would do fact checking or maybe they consider calling for the execution of a person running for Governor as not a big deal since Kanjorski was in Pennsylvania at the time. Who knows.

Kanjorski served in the US House for about 26 years and was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2010.

A news org called Kanjorski and confronted him with his quote about now-Governor Scott and Kanjorski said that people should have known he was joking because he uses colorful language a lot.

Scranton, PA newspaper article containing the quote about executing now-Governor Scott is:

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/roderick-random/kanjorski-ponders-nuts-bolts-from-blue-1.1052739#axzz1A4hLabIP

NYTimes op - ed (it requires sign up):

https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/opinion/11Kanjorski.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26partnerQ3DrssQ26emcQ3Drss