The American Spectator

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More Help from an Unexpected Corner

By Joseph Lawler on 6.11.09 @ 11:07AM

Joining Wonkette in the small group of non-conservatives who aren't losing their credibility, libertarian Jesse Walker of Reason identifies the precise motivation for the left's willingness to use yesterday's tragedy at the Holocaust Museum as a talking point used against the right:

The effect [of the DHS report on "right-wing extremism" isn't to make right-wing terror attacks less likely. It's to make it easier to smear nonviolent, noncriminal figures on the right, just as the most substantial effect of a red scare was to make it easier to smear nonviolent, noncriminal figures on the left. The fact that communist spies really existed didn't justify Joseph McCarthy's antics, and the fact that armed extremists really exist doesn't justify the Department of Homeland Security's report.

That's exactly right. If you are so cynical as to use the occasion of a security guard laying down his life to protect museumgoers under attack from a lone, crazed gunman as an opportunity to score points against your political opponents, then you do not have journalistic integrity.

Oh, and by the way, yesterday's killer hates neocons and Bill O'Reilly. For what it's worth.