Surviving Jared Loughner

The first anniversary of Jared Loughner’s shooting attack on Gabrielle Giffords — and of the deranged left’s disgusting attempt to pin responsibility for it on Tea Party conservatives — occurred this past Sunday. Carol Donushka was injured in the attack, but protected by a loving husband. Living with the psychological effects of the assault, Mrs. Donushka has the continuing devotion of her husband. Tamara Audi’s Wall Street Journal story about the Donushkas — “A ‘new normal’ after Tuscon attack” — is a moving study in survival and devotion.

Mr. and Mrs. Donushka are supporters of Rep. Giffords who seized the opportunity to meet with her the morning of the attack. Not so Mr. and Mrs. George Morris. Mr. Morris sought out Rep. Giffords that morning to take her to task for her support of liberal causes including Obamacare. Despite Mr. Morris’s efforts to protect his wife, she was killed and Morris himself was injured in Loughner’s attack. A retired Marine and airline pilot, Mr. Morris is avoiding any sentimental observation of the anniversary. The Arizona Republic reports:

If he could meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords now, he’d still vent his frustration at the representative, who suffered brain damage from the Jan. 8 shootings. He also has some choice words for her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.

“Every time I see them on TV,” he said of the couple, who were featured in a prime-time network special in November, “it makes me want to vomit.”

Morris, 77, a self-described “ultraconservative,” refused an invitation to have President Barack Obama visit him in his hospital room in the days following the shootings.

“I will not kowtow to anyone,” he said. “People would not believe that I would refuse the president.”

Morris originally expressed his thoughts to the Republic in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but the Republic withheld them from publication as Mr. Morris avoided follow-up phone calls from the paper. “Reached in December by phone at his home, he gave a second interview, expressing similar and, at times, even harsher sentiments.”

“That’s my story,” he said toward the close of that conversation. “Do with it what you want.” Don’t miss it.

Jared Loughner’s attack on Rep. Giffords derived from mental illness so severe that he has been found incompetent to stand trial. What is the excuse of Paul Krugman and the rest of the liberal media operatives who joined in, using Loughner’s attack to conduct an assault on conservatives? I’d like to see an MMPI on Krugman, but mental illness doesn’t cover the case. Cynicism and calculation are quite enough to explain it. Glenn Reynolds deserves special recognition for calling the likes of Krugman out at the time in his Wall Street Journal column “The Arizona tragedy and the politics of blood libel.” On this anniversary Glenn’s judgment stands:

To be clear, if you’re using this event to criticize the “rhetoric” of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either: (a) asserting a connection between the “rhetoric” and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?

I understand the desperation that Democrats must feel after taking a historic beating in the midterm elections and seeing the popularity of ObamaCare plummet while voters flee the party in droves. But those who purport to care about the health of our political community demonstrate precious little actual concern for America’s political well-being when they seize on any pretext, however flimsy, to call their political opponents accomplices to murder.

Where is the decency in that?

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