NYU Adjunct Professor: 'Does Mitch McConnell Have to Get Shot to Support Gun Control?'

April 19th, 2013 1:16 PM

As NewsBusters reported last week, the CEO and editor-at-large of Foreign Policy magazine claimed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as a result of his position on gun control legislation, is "more dangerous to America" than North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

On Thursday, Daniel Altman, a Foreign Policy contributor as well as an adjunct associate professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, tweeted, "This is in no way an incitement to violence, but, given Rob Portman's example, does Mitch McConnell have to get shot to support gun control?"

For those unfamiliar with Altman, his bio says:

Daniel Altman is the founder and president of North Yard Economics, a non-profit consulting firm serving developing countries. He also serves as an adjunct associate professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and chief economist of Big Think. Most recently, Daniel founded Emerging Design Centers, a for-profit enterprise that brings cutting-edge tools for product design to poor communities. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the expert advisory board at Dalberg Global Development Advisors.

Daniel previously wrote economic commentary on the staffs of The Economist, The International Herald Tribune, and The New York Times, where he was also one of the youngest-ever members of the editorial board. In between stints as a journalist, he was an economic advisor in the British government.


So he used to be on the New York Times editorial board!

But Altman and Foreign Policy aren't alone in their inflammatory castigation of McConnell.

Bill Maher recently compared McConnell to Newtown shooter Adam Lanza.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews said the Minority Leader was "basically Hugo Chavez."

And the liberal group Americans United for Change has a new ad out tying McConnell to al Qaeda.

Makes you wonder why the media aren't attacking these entities the way they went after McConnell when a leaked recording revealed he and his advisors discussing opposition research on actress Ashley Judd.

I guess discussing a potential political rival's mental problems is far worse than advocating someone get shot or comparing him to a mass murderer, an American hating despot, or tying him to the most feared terrorist group in the world.

As I've maintained for years, it takes a lot of rationalizations to be a liberal these days.