Congress puts political wrangling on back burner.(Front)

By Jim Kuhnhenn

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The shooting rampage in Arizona seems to have created a reset moment for confrontational politics, as lawmakers reflect on the repercussions of the overheated rhetoric traded on the airwaves and on the campaign trail.

Members of Congress from both parties called Sunday for civility over belligerence as the House temporarily shelved the contentious debate over repealing the health care law and lawmakers paused to contemplate the tragedy.

Critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the apparent target of a lone shooter, emerged as a potent and cautionary symbol of the current political climate. Still, there was no clear motivation for the attack, and some warned against making provocative politicians and commentators the culprits in the assault.

Authorities said the attack was the work of a single gunman. They described the apprehended suspect, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, as mentally unstable.

House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers in a conference call Sunday to "pull together as an institution." "What is critical is that we stand together at this dark time as one body," he said. "We need to rally around our wounded colleague, the families of the fallen, and the people of Arizona's 8th District. And, frankly, we need to rally around each other."

Such unifying pauses are usual after national tragedies. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack was a coalescing moment in the nation that for a time improved the tone of Capitol Hill debate. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on political rhetoric, said there were similar breaks after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. "There was a lot of discussion about the meaning of the moment and what rhetoric had done to incite it," she said.

What's more, the attack on Giffords has given members of Congress a sense of unusual common purpose. Leaders from both parties worked together Sunday to offer members assurances that they were reviewing security measures.

While Sunday's calls for unity and civility were bipartisan, the discussion had a partisan subtext as Democrats pointed to anti-government language from the tea party movement and to rabble-rousing imagery and rhetoric from conservative figures such as Sarah Palin.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democratic leader in the Senate, on Sunday mentioned Palin's combative rallying cry, "Don't retreat; reload," and the crosshairs she used to signal congressional districts where she wanted Republicans to win.

"These sorts of things, I think, invite the kind of toxic rhetoric that can lead unstable people to believe this is an acceptable response," Durbin said Sunday on CNN.

Republicans were sensitive to suggestions that their side of the political spectrum was contributing to a more poisonous political environment.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., noted Sunday that the suspect in the Tucson rampage was connected to Internet postings that included Marxist and Nazi literature.

"That's not the profile of a typical tea party member, if that's the inference that's being made," he said on CNN.