(Updated with Jon Caldara's fascinating and predictable input, a few more links to the Right's eliminationist rhetoric and a Golden Oldie from Boyles. - Z)
Both sides might do "it". That's the talking point. Mini-Limbaughs like Lou Pate on KOA dutifully started the process Saturday night. (Where do they find these infinite, cheap clones of Limbaugh, and do they all get a time slot on KOA?) Anyway, Lou says Democrats will blame Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and 1,000 others for this avoidable tragedy. But Lou won't take responsibility for a word of it, even his own.
The "it", as we all know in this discussion, is two very different things: two different sets of rhetoric, different tactics with differences in scope and tone and intent. Our "side" does it here:
Their side does it in this chilling list of political and media right-wingers fantasizing about blood in the streets and a locked-and-loaded citizenry. Jon Caldara was saying last night that the rhetoric doesn't matter. I tend to agree with Krugman:
Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It's hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be "armed and dangerous" without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
If Krugman is wrong and Caldara is right, then I fully expect Jon-boy stop talking about taxes and privatizing everything....because it doesn't matter.
So we await the list of National and Local Major Media and Political Figures on the Liberal side who do the same as the Conservatives who claim they do.
Republicans don't apologize. They reload, they up the ante, and they urge the kinds of things that happened this weekend all while saying it's a "joke" or they were "misquoted." Peter Boyles disgustingly said of a local Birther/Teahadist's contribution to our discussion: "It'll rock and roll." Glenn Beck comes on right after Boyles. The Party of Personal Responsibility wants none even as they pump up the volume.
So Lou Pate, Professional Liar, started the push back Saturday night on KOA. He was on the defensive again Sunday and Jon Caldara followed up with further obfuscations, something he does so well. It will continue in earnest on Monday on all the usual media outlets - 850KOA being the most prominent.
