Don't answer that!

But seriously. From yet another manic right-wing attempt to play victim in the wake of Tucson gun massacre [emphasis added]:

OK, so conservatives have to be accused of fostering hatred with our alleged vitriol, the kind of vitriol which fuels the flames of violence, like we witnessed in Tucson except – well, except there wasn't, and isn't, a shred of evidence that the killer was influenced by any conservatives since a) he didn't listen to or watch conservative programming and b) isn't a conservative.

There is the hypothetical question: What if the perpetrator of violence were liberal? How would the media react then? How many would put Chris Matthews, Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann and Co. on trial for creating the “atmosphere” of “hatred” so often ascribed to conservatives only?

In fact, it happened. One of Jared Loughner's shooting victims was a local leftist activist, Eric Fuller, who last week was invited to ABC's taping of an “American Conversation.” There, in front of all the cameras, he interrupted a local Tea Party activist by uttering what should be considered in this atmosphere to be a blood-curdling threat: “You're dead!” Police considered these words serious enough to have him removed and involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

Apparently Bozell is furious that in the wake of Fuller arrest, the press hasn't put Matthews, Krugman and Olbermann on trial for creating an atmosphere of hatred, the way conservative commentators were “put on trial” in recent days.

Fine. So why doesn't Bozell quote all the examples of violent, unhinged rhetoric that Krugman and Matthews and Olbermann have used in recent months and years to show of how they have fermented an atmosphere of hate and likely influenced Fuller? Why doesn't Bozell do it? Because he can't. (Pretty simple, right?)

The right wing is desperate to convince itself, and anyone else who will listen, that liberals have been just as guilty in trafficking in violent, dangerous, gun-soaked political rhetoric recently. The only problem is conservatives can't find any examples to back up their claims.

The Media Matters archives is filled with right-wing examples. (See here, here, here and here.) But defenders like Bozell come up empty when trying to paint Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman, for instance, as a deranged hate monger.

And that's why I remain curious: Is Brent Bozell really this clueless?