McConnell continued in this textbook method that public officials use to imitate a sense of caring for strangers to whom bad things happened. He enumerated the victims and re-capped the events, ending with a call for prayer "in a special way," without suggesting what that might mean.
Then he started getting more slippery:
"As the President said yesterday, the two parties stand united today in our deepest sympathy for all of those who were affected first-hand by these heinous attacks"."
McConnell, famous for his failed commitment to make Barack Obama a one-term president by almost any means necessary, can't bring himself to say anything as simple as that he stands with the President. He doesn't even say the two parties stand with the President. He doesn't say anyone stands with the President, because he certainly doesn't stand with the President and never has.
Instead, McConnell refers to what he says the President said, which he characterizes as being united "in our deepest sympathy for all those who were affected first-hand-- -- wait, say what? No sympathy for those not affected first hand? And what does "first-hand" mean, anyway? Dead, wounded, related to the dead or wounded, in the same political party as the dead or wounded"? He doesn't say.
And it turns out that McConnell's paraphrase of the President really isn't very close to what the President actually said in his matter-of-fact comments that were free of emotional fawning:
"I've updated leaders
of Congress in both parties, and we reaffirmed that on days like this there are
no Republicans or Democrats -- we are Americans, united in concern for our
fellow citizens.
" I've also spoken with Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino, and made it clear that they have every single federal resource necessary to care for the victims and counsel the families. And above all, I made clear to them that all Americans stand with the people of Boston."
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