No surprise here: hack columnist Paul Krugman is among the first to seek political advantage from mass murder:
We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.
Really? Based on what?
She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list.
Of course, there is zero evidence that any of this had anything to do with Jared Loughner, who had no known connection to the Tea Party, the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, the Democratic Party, or anything else related to sane politics. It goes without saying that none of the purported villains on Krugman’s list have ever suggested that Congresswoman Giffords, or anyone else, should be shot.
Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary. Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.
This would be outrageous even if Krugman himself were not one of the worst hatemongers in public life, a man whose hysterical rhetoric exceeds anything you hear from Limbaugh, Beck, or any significant figure on the right who comes to mind. But this sort of contemptible demagoguery is exactly the kind of thing we have come to expect from Krugman.
UPDATE: Verum Serum makes a fool of Krugman. We haven’t paid much attention to Krugman lately. Maybe we should start beating up on him again. God knows he deserves it.
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