A few days, or at the very least, a few hours – in an earlier era, people would have taken a breath before plunging into a remorseless debate about the political implications of an obscene act of violence.

Within minutes after a gunman’s shots-bullets that killed a federal judge, a nine-year-old girl and four others, and left a congresswoman clinging to life-activists of all stripes were busy, first on Twitter and blogs, then on cable television, chewing on two questions that once would have been indelicate to raise before the blood was dry:

Who in American politics deserves a slice of blame for the Tucson murders? And what public officials find themselves with sudden opportunities for political gain from a tragedy?

By day’s end, the argument that the political right-fueled by anti-government, and anti-immigrant passions that run especially strong in Arizona-is culpable for the Tucson massacre, even if by indirect association, seemed to be validated by the top local law enforcement official investigating the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D).

‘When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government-the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country […]