It's chickens came home to roost in Tucson

In the wake of the lethal fusillade in Tucson Republicans came close to confessing to complicity by reason of incitement.   Sarah Palin pulled her cross-hair go-shoot 'em target pics of Democrats from her site.  Republicans in Congress suspended their opening political onslaught for a week.  The right-wing commenators settled down to a steady chorus about Loughner being a lone nut, maybe even a secret Commie.  He had Orwell's Animal Farm   and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest flagged on his site, next to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.  A fusion nutball maybe.

In the relentless escalation in violent political rhetoric across the past couple of years, it's been a pretty safe bet that sooner or later  someone on the right would try to shoot a Democrat, the preferred target being President Barack Obama.  But Obama doesn't sit in a parking lot outside a Safeway supermarket in Tucson, Arizona, minus  bodyguards, chatting to all and sundry.