Among the most astonishing things to come out of the attempt on the life of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords have been the knee-jerk reactions and the efforts by the liberal establishment to pin the blame for this tragedy on conservatives.
On Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” Monday, senior political analyst Brit Hume challenged the left’s narrative.
“It has become a habit of the American left to equate disagreement with liberals and liberalism with hate,” Hume said. “So convinced do they seem of the virtue of their cause that the only possible explanation for resistance to it must be hatred. In the past week, at least two prominent liberal commentators spoke of the need to resist the right, quote, ‘Obama hate machine.’ Hardly a surprise then that the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords would quickly be blamed on what columnist [Paul] Krugman of The New York Times called the climate of hate, fomented of course by the right.”
Hume also pointed out that some of the attempts to capitalize politically on the tragedy are deeply misguided.
“Never mind that the only climate that seemed to matter here was the fevered swamp of Jared Loughner’s mind,” he continued. “The Democratic sheriff of Pima County also saw a connection to the national climate, though he admitted he had no evidence, just his opinion he said. Here in Washington, Democratic Congressman Brady of Philadelphia has a bill to make at it crime to use language or symbols that quote, ‘Could be perceived as threatening violence against Congress.’ So presumably our national discourse will now be cleansed of references to attack ads and targeted races and blasting one’s opponent. Congress better kill that bill before it’s a crime to use the phrase and before anyone gets idea that regulating speech will have any effect on the behavior of the deranged.”
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