Ah, the perils that befall Chris Matthews when he brings a non-liberal on his show. Maybe this is why it happens so rarely.
MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan made an astute observation on Thursday's "Hardball": people who continue to blame Sarah Palin or any other conservative for Saturday's shooting in Tucson - people like Chris Matthews - are the new conspiracy theorists. They bear striking resemblance to 'Truthers' and 'Birthers' in their refusal to allow evidence to alter their views (video below the fold - h/t Jeff Poor).
Ace has a fantastic take on this exchange:
Matthews reacts exactly like a Truther to this too. A Truther (note I changed the terms of debate from Birther to Truther) brings up his crazy ideas, states his crazy idea, but then when challenged, he stops asserting the craziest part of his idea and starts claiming he means something more modest. Like, a Truther will start saying "I'm just raising questions" and claiming he "doesn't know" who put those non-existent explosive charges in all 110 floors of the WTC.
That's what Matthews does. After claiming a direct connection for five or six days straight, after Buchanan tells him he's like a Birther or Truther, Matthews starts arguing for the much more modest proposition that saying "Second Amendment remedies" is "wrong."
Well, I'd agree with that! But that is not your thesis, Chris. Your thesis is that Palin's map, and other imagined "incitements," were viewed or heard by Loughner, and that he acted due to these. You can't even establish the former (that he was even aware of them) let alone the latter.
