More interesting news is coming out of Georgia's climate-change-denying, anti-science Representative Paul Broun's recent town-hall meeting. According to multiple press reports, an elderly man at the Oglethorpe County meeting asked Broun, “Who’s going to shoot Obama?” Reportedly, the question got a big laugh from the audience.

The press accounts all seem to agree on that much of the story, but from there on they differ. According to some reports, Broun chose to ignore the question and quickly moved to the next question, but other reports suggest that he laughed as well, and several reports indicate he responded by saying, "The thing is, I know there's a lot of frustration with this president. We're going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we'll elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare."

As always, the best account of this incident is over at Wonkette.

For the record, Broun's office says that his response was to the next comment, not to the "Who's going to shoot him?" question. To his credit, Broun later issued a statement that "After the event, my office took action with the appropriate authorities. I deeply regret that this incident happened at all. Furthermore, I condemn all statements — made in sincerity or jest — that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the President of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.”

On the other hand, the "shoot him" statement was made on Tuesday, the press didn't pick up on the story until Wednesday, and the condemnation wasn't released until Thursday. Why didn't Broun swiftly and publicly condemn the statement when it was made, in front of the crowd that seemed to think it was somehow "funny"? But in any event, better late than never.

The point here is that words spoken in anger in turn produce more anger. Broun has established his public persona by repeatedly comparing President Obama to Hitler, his policies to Marxism, and labeling anything he disagrees with as "socialism" (including eating vegetables). During this year's State of the Union address, Broun reportedly tweeted that "Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism."

This sort of rhetoric may win some elections in rural Georgia, but it also fans the flames of intolerance and hatred. Divisive comments like Broun's may appear harmless in and of themselves, but they also open the door to more extreme statements, like that made by the elderly man at the town hall meeting. And enough comments like the old man's ultimately pave the way to actual violence, if not against the President, then against someone.

It's my sincere hope that Broun was sincere in his condemnation of the statement, and that it further causes him to tone down down his rhetoric and vitriol in favor of a more civil dialog. I don't expect or request him to change his political views, but I do hope that he learns to better tolerate those views that are different than his.

That, and he learns to eat his vegetables.