Will Paul Krugman apologize?

Krugman posted this on his blog today:

We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist.

(Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list.

Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary. Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

Wow.  All the evidence at this point indicates the gunman was a schizophrenic loner with no coherent political outlook.  Yet Krugman impulsively created a hate-crime narrative, based on absolutely nothing but his own prejudices.

This reminds me of my time at UMass in 2000-2001 or so when there were a series of rapes.  The radical feminists marched around all day for weeks protesting the phallocracy, and stenciling on the sidewalks graffiti of a cock and balls with the words "This is not power."  Of course the crimes were merely the acts of a lone criminal, but they didn't miss out on the opportunity to create a feminist power structure narrative.  I think Krugman is doing the same here.

Krugman, this brilliant economist whose academic work I admire, lowered himself to the level of those who blamed the Muslims immediately after the Oklahoma City bombing, and to the level of the feminist wackos who protested phallocracy after the rapes.

Now that the facts are in, he owes his readers an apology.