Chickens Coming Home to Roost in Health Care Debate?

Last year, an Anti-Defamation League study cautioned that a wave of anti-government hostility had created "a climate of fervor and activism with manifestations ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence."

To characterize that warning as prescient would be more than mild understatement. In the aftermath of the battle over health care reform, passions have given way to vandalism and threats. Consider the following:

• Someone cut the propane gas line at the home of Rep. Thomas Perriello's (D-Va.) brother, whose address was posted by an organizer for the Lynchburg Tea Party, apparently upset at the congressman's vote for the health care bill.

• A brick smashed a window at U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls, New York.

• A note attached to the brick used to break the glass doors at the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in Rochester., N.Y. read, "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."

• Congressman Bart Stupak received a stream of threatening calls following his vote to pass health care reform legislation. (You can listen to audio excerpts here.

• The office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was allegedly attacked with a pellet gun.

The rancid actions of a fevered few or the start of something larger? Hard to say just yet, though it fit the narrative sketched out in the ADL report. In the fall of 2009, diatribes against the Obama White House as a threat to the future of the nation - along with the notion that he's out to bring socialism, communism or Nazism - still had shock value. Since then, that sort of demonization of Obama and other Democrats has become a regular staple of political conversation.

For the record, House Republican Leader John Boehner has condemned all violence and threats as "unacceptable." But Boehner and his cohorts now find themselves trying to tamp down a rhetorical fury that he and other conservative opponents of "Obamacare" have helped nourish. During the Sunday debate in the House of Representatives, I lost track of how many times GOP members rose to denounce the specter of creeping socialism. Devin Nunes of California outdid that when he called up the specter of "totalitarianism." That sort of overheated rhetoric would have been right at home with the spring and summer tea party rallies, where placards of Obama sporting Hitler moustaches became regular features.

Then yesterday, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele suggested that voters send House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to "the firing line." During a conversation with Fox's Greta Van Sustren, he said Pelosi had been "derelict" to the country by not listening, by taking the party and I believe the country down a bad road. And this November, they're going to pay. So let's start getting Nancy ready for the firing line this November."

Then there's Sarah Palin's use of gun sight graphics on her Facebook page targeting moderate Democrats. Palin also tweeted "Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" The world's most famous born-again social networker wasn't advocating violence. But considering the heated atmosphere, it was a provocative choice of language.

A few weeks ago, when "Obamacare" appeared stillborn, these folks had all the markings of being sore winners. In defeat, they're looking and more and more like sore losers.

Update: Politico is reporting that a coffin was placed near the home of Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.)