Have You No Sense of Decency, Rachel Maddow, at Long Last? Have You Left No Sense of Decency?

Well, that didn't take long. I wrote previously that Rachel Maddow was "crestfallen" at the news that alleged killer Jared Loughner wasn't a tea partier. She'd argued at the time that "nothing was to be gained" without the facts. While welcomed, Maddow's restraint was surprising, given how hate-addled progressives like Markos Moulitsas and TBogg were assigning blame before we knew much of anything, especially the fate of the fallen. And as I noted earlier, Maddow's response was all the more unusual, since "nobody on the progressive left has been more aggressive in portraying conservatism as a violent millenarian movement." Well, throw all of that out of the window. Here's the clip of Maddow's comments last night:

The segment's called "Facts Matter," but obviously they don't. The public consensus now is that "heated rhetoric" isn't to be blamed for Jared Loughner's actions in Tuscon. Or more starkly, as Ed Morrissey puts it, "57% of Americans don’t buy media spin on Tucson massacre." But here's Rachel Maddow anyway, flailing away with an attack on the tea parties that's both unprincipled and record-setting in its depravity. Maddow goes after former Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle's comments from last year on "Second Amendment remedies," and she cites this article at the Reno Gazette-Journal to make the case. Maddow makes an elaborate set-up, citing the lack of evidence linking Loughner to right-wing extremist groups, and then she tries to get around the fact that "right-wing rhetoric" had nothing to do with it by claiming that Angle's comments weren't rhetoric at all, but actual incitement to gun violence. This is beneath demagoguery, and that's saying a lot. Just checking Memeorandum is making me nauseous. Sen. Bernie Sanders has issued a fundraising appeal looking to exploit the massacre for partisanship? And Sarah Palin death threats on Twitter?

Anyway, I'll have more later, but see Tom Maguire until then, "And Speaking Of Krugman And Double Standards At The Times..." (via Memeorandum).