Thousands of blog posts accusing Sarah Palin and the Tea Party of complicity in that nutjob’s shooting spree in Arizona were buzzing around the blogosphere within minutes after the news broke. With absolutely no evidence at all, and, in fact, with some evidence to the contrary, lefty bloggers and the mainstream media linked Palin and the Tea Party to the tragedy.
The increasingly irresponsible Associated Press was among them. In a manner that Tailgunner Joe McCarthy would admire, they juxtaposed Palin, the Tea Party and conservatives with general blather about “vitriol” and the “political climate,” never once making an actual connection between them. AP quoted people who knew the alleged shooter, but intentionally did not report on the student who said Loughner’s politics were definitely left-wing.
The sliming effort has been so desperate and frantic that some reliable liberals are feeling squeamish. Are they concerned about the irresponsibility of it all, or do they see some danger in this grotesque reaction? Maybe a little of both.
Remember the Paul Wellstone funeral, when what should have been a solemn occasion was used as a political pep rally for the Democratic Party? The blowback from that bit of nakedly political opportunism was massive. The predicted shellacking that the GOP was expected to take in 2002 did not occur, with most observers blaming the funeral hijacking.
The level of blowback surprised many. After all, the funeral had only been shown on C-SPAN, which few watch. How, then, did millions of Americans come to be offended by what the gathered Democrats did that day? The answer: blogs and new media. We have that now in spades, much more than in 2002. Millions of Americans get their news from blogs, Twitter and Facebook, from friends who post outrages for their friends to see. No longer can three networks bury a story.
That’s why I think the negative reaction to what the Left and many Democrats have tried to do in the past 36 hours will be dire and massive. I think that’s why people like Kurtz are telling their liberal friends to cool it. It may be too late.
