More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention, Part 186

Special "Before you accuse" Edition
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Kerry Picket at the Washington Times' Water Cooler blog:

"Before much was known about Ms. Giffords's condition following the shooting at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson on Saturday, some liberals took it upon themselves to assume the shooter's motive, political affiliation, and that Sarah Palin's political graphic somehow encouraged the shooter to go on a rampage at a shopping center this weekend... Nevermind the fact that Democrats used similar imagery to describe districts they were looking to be competitive in during the 2004 campaign... a Daily Kos blogger by the name of 'Blue Boy' posted a blog on Thursday on Mr. Moulitsas's website with the headline: 'My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me'... Additionally, Moulitsas's Daily Kos placed a "bulls eye" on Rep. Giffords as well as a primary target in 2008."

Joe Schoffstall at the Blast:

"What Markos has done is simply on a level scum can’t even hit."

Matt Lewis at Politics Daily:

"It is sad to see folks immediately politicize such a tragedy. If your first response to such an event is to think of Sarah Palin, something is wrong. Like it or not, the sort of rhetoric and imagery employed by Palin's PAC is not terribly unusual. Politicians constantly talk about 'targeting' voters -- does anyone think they want to shoot them? Political consultants tell politicians to 'hunt where the ducks are,' but they certainly don't mean to shoot voters. Ironically, Moulitsas has also previously urged his readers to 'target' Giffords and put a 'bulls eye' on her district because she 'sold out the Constitution...' To be sure, it is possible for a politician to use words to incite violence, but putting a target on a congressional district is clearly not an example of that."

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit:

"The Associated Press thought about the shootings in Arizona by a Marx-supporting, liberal, anti-government lunatic and placed blame squarely at the feet of the tea party and Sarah Palin... This was disgusting."

Sheya:

"It is a sad state of affairs when a tragedy gets politicized, unfortunately some on the left have no shame in doing so and as a result we are left with no alternative but to correct the record. It is ironic that it’s no other than the far left Daily Kos who are pushing this blame Palin narrative when it was just 2 days ago when the Daily Kos indirectly called for the death of congreswomen Giffords... The targeting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by the Daily Kos goes back to June 2008 when they placed a Bullseye on Rep Giffords... In 2004 the Democrats had a 'Targeting Map' of their own, as it turns out Arizona just so happens to be one of their targets... Our message to the Daily Kos: People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones."

Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters:

"To be sure, the Left's predictable and groundless finger-pointing whenever these kinds of incidents happen in our nation is not at all surprising... Yet, from what we can glean concerning alleged shooter Jared Lee Loughner, he doesn't at all fit the right-wing mold."

Joe Brooks at WireUpdate:

"Despite the rhetoric found on Twitter and liberal websites there is absolutely no shred of evidence that Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck ever once influenced the gunman behind the mass shooting in Tuscon, Arizona... Long before Sarah Palin posted a Facebook image declaring Giffords as one of her political targets during the 2010 mid-term elections, Loughner told a high school friend that he spoke with the Congresswoman. He asked Giffords a question and determined she was 'stupid and unintelligent.' This meeting occurred a year before Sarah Palin was a household name, in 2007, and three years before the infamous ‘targets’ image was posted on Facebook."

Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress:

"It’s kind of disgusting when you hear someone is shot and the first thing you do is try to figure out how to fit the terrible news to your political worldview."

Philip Klein at The American Spectator's AmSpec Blog:

"In the absence of any evidence, many liberals have settled on the nebulous argument that Palin helped to contribute to a generalized climate of inflammatory political rhetoric, which made somebody who was insane turn to violence. From a pure journalistic perspective, there is absolutely no evidence that alleged shooter Loughner had ever seen Palin's famed target map, let alone that he was motivated by it. Yet in a YouTube page believed to be created by Loughner -- and widely cited in the media as such -- the alleged shooter actually names the Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books and, unlike the subliminal message liberals attribute to Palin's map, Marx and Engles explicitly advocated political violence. "

Mike at Axis of Right:

"With Congressman Gabrielle Giffords still in intensive care, some liberals and the media (but I repeat myself) are using the tragedy to dishonestly smear Sarah Palin."

Toby Harnden at The Telegraph:

"Giffords herself doesn’t quite fit the likely victim of an enraged Right-winger. She is a Blue Dog Democrat, a deficit hawk and voted to lift the ban on guns in DC and voted against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. On Thursday, she took part in the reading of the Constitution in the House, reading aloud the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, speech and peaceful assembly. She’s certainly not the 'progressive' that Hanoi Jane tweeted about and provoked as much anger on the Left as on the Right for her political stances. Just the other day, a blogger at DailyKos said that Giffords was 'dead to me' for failing to back Pelosi... This is a time for sombre reflection and a calming (rather than an escalation) of rhetoric. Sadly, however, some see it as another opportunity to score political points and vilify those they hate."

Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs:

"Despite the evidence of the shooter's leftwing politics, the leftist enemedia and culture terrorists are in full assault on the American psyche, blaming Republicans and our most effective leaders, spinning their bold-faced lies and using this terrible mass murder to destroy people and the tea party."

Howard Kurtz at The Daily Beast:

"Let's be honest: Journalists often use military terminology in describing campaigns. We talk about the air war, the bombshells, targeting politicians, knocking them off, candidates returning fire or being out of ammunition. So we shouldn't act shocked when politicians do the same thing... And here we go again in Arizona, as people with political agendas unleash their attacks even before the victims of this senseless shooting have been buried. I find it depressing beyond belief. This isn't about a nearly year-old Sarah Palin map; it's about a lone nutjob who doesn't value human life. It would be nice if we briefly put aside partisan differences and came together with sympathy and support for Gabby Giffords and the other victims, rather than opening rhetorical fire ourselves."

Gary P Jackson at A Time For Choosing:

"Now to the sissies at the New York Times, and ignorant left wing bloggers, those symbols might look like gun sights, but they simply are not. As was explained to the radical and rabid left at the time, these are surveyor’s symbols."

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:

"I guess the Democrats’ map with targets was fomenting violence, too, then. Let me be clear, as a great man says: If you’re using this event to criticize the 'rhetoric' of Sarah Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either asserting a connection between the 'rhetoric' and the shooting — which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie — or you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. So which is it?"

Rebecca Mansour via Twitter:

"We never removed this Facebook post: http://is.gd/kokfD"

Dennis Ingolfsland at The Recliner Commentaries:

"I was struck by the number of hateful bloggers who immediately blamed Sarah Palin and others on the Right. Now it appears that the shooter may have been a Left-winger who apparently thought Ms. Giffords was too moderate for his tastes. Should we now blame all non-moderate liberals for Ms. Gifford's death? That would be absurd, of course, but no more absurd than blaming Sarah Palin! Almost 20 people were shot... and the first thought on the minds of many Left wing bloggers was to find a way to score points against their political opponents. Truly pathetic."

Da Techguy:

"If you are blaming Sarah Palin and/or the Tea Parties for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, you are identifying yourself as a person who is so deranged with hate that you should not be taken seriously on any issue."

William A. Jacobson at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion:

"Two Sicknesses On Display in Arizona... The first and most serious is the sickness living in Loughner's head... There also was a second sickness on display, and it was the swiftness and the vigor with which the left-wing blogosphere and some more mainstream Democrats immediately sought to blame Sarah Palin and right-wing 'vitriol' in general for the shooting... Yet not a single person pushing the blame-Palin line has offered a shred of evidence that Loughner ever saw Palin's electoral map, was motivated by it, was right-wing (anectodally it appears Loughner was quite left-wing as of a few years ago), was motivated by right-wing radio, or did any of the things being assumed by the left-blogosphere, the mainstream media and some Democratic politicians. Not a shred of evidence connecting Loughner to Palin, the Tea Parties, or the right wing, yet the left-blogosphere, mainstream media and Democratic politicians have erupted into a frenzy of name-calling directed at Palin and those who oppose Obama's agenda."

Vinnie at The Jawa Report:

"Expect more of this tripe from the hard left. They'll ignore the facts as usual, just like they did when they tried to pin the blame for the OKC bombing on right wing talk radio."

Joe Newby at Examiner.com:

"Let's get one thing straight. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party are not responsible for the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In fact, the only person responsible is the nut who allegedly pulled the trigger. 'Allegedly', because that person is now in police custody awaiting trial, and in this country a person is innocent until proven guilty. Unless you happen to be a conservative who disagrees with Barack Obama... If Olbermann and Company want reasonable dialog, they can start by toning down their own hateful rhetoric."

Jay Tea at Wizbang:

"That Giant Flushing Sound You Hear... ...is thousands of diaries at Daily Kos getting purged in the wake of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords..."

FireAndreaMitchell:

"CBS News blames Sarah Palin for Giffords shooting... Of course. The left wing media is in full attack mode blaming the “alleged” shooting by Jared Lee Loughner of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Like we couldn’t see this all coming right? ... Yet, CBS News conveniently leaves out what Daily Kos left wing nutter site had it’s own 'target list' for several 'blue dog' Democrats back in 2008. They haven’t pulled this page yet. Daily Kos however did pull another page about Gabrielle Giffords."

Jim Treacher via Twitter:

"As @markos screeches about Palin, just remember that he hosted this: http://twitpic.com/3o7s5c And now it's gone: http://j.mp/fH7YBd"

Mary Ann Kreitzer at Les Femmes - The Truth:

"The smoke hadn't cleared at the scene before liberals blamed Sarah Palin and the tea party for the shooting. The mass murder is a tragedy, but isn't it prudent to get the facts before gathering the lynch mob? If one disagrees with liberalism he is automatically accused of inciting murder and is lynched in the liberal press (or on the liberal blogs). And the Huffington Post isn't exactly a model of restraint when it comes to rhetoric... Liberals need to take a deep breath and let the police do their job. Unfortunately, that isn't likely to happen because designating your opponent as a 'hatemonger' is an acceptable staple of liberalism... The jamming against Sarah Palin and the tea party has begun. It illustrates the left's aphorism that 'a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.'"

- JP