From my desk in the Chicago Tribune newsroom, I hear reporters chasing stories all day long. It brings me back to the days of smoke-filled news gathering areas where it was the story that mattered. These days, it’s less the story and more of the spin when it comes to measuring importance. Just the other day, a Trib reporter came over to my workspace and gave me a heads up on a developing story. There were early reports of an attack in Pakistan and, though no details were readily available, stringers were painting a dire picture of the scene. ‘This could be as big as the Mumbai attacks in 2008′, or so he thought. It was more fizzle than sizzle and the death toll just wasn’t high enough to grab lasting headlines.

Then came Wednesday’s attack on a D.C. Holocaust museum. 88-year-old nutjob James von Brunn parked his red Hyundai Accent in front of the building and raced towards the entryway with a ‘long barrel’ weapon. 39-year-old Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns opened that door and was rewarded a fatal shot for his kindness.

This was a story the political vultures could put a spin on.

When most people in this country were feeling sorrow for an innocent murder victim and hatred toward the still-living (though it’s quite clear he wished this to be his last act) barbarian who shot him, Liberal websites like Americablog.com, DailyKos.com and others took the opportunity to make a political point. Wonkette (generally politically aligned with the Left) points out the insanity here.

The reaction was disturbing. ‘Hey, remember that incredibly vague and error-ridden DHS report that the Attorney General apologized over? It was totally right! Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are encouraging goons like this to commit murder. It’s along the same veins as Dr. Tiller’s assassination.’ Sure, that’s a generalization of the argument put forward by these sites, but it’s not too far from the genesis of that argument. All this makes their political play nearly as disturbing as the murder itself.

There’s an over-arching goal here: to silence the Republican party for good. This would force a split between the Left and the Far Left. Republicans would be no more and the country would change in radical ways with a quickness. Not all Democrats are pushing for this but those who are seem to be the loudest voices in the scrum.

So when the Miss California’s or the Sarah Palin’s or the Bobby Jindal’s of this world speak, there’s one tactic used; those folks are ridiculed and made a joke of. Popular culture is filled with references to how foolish they are and the thought that they could match wits with the intellectual heavyweights on the other side of the isle is laughed at. It becomes common knowledge that they aren’t of the caliber required to run this great nation of ours. You can toss your George W. Bush’s and your Dan Quayle’s in this pile as well.

But when it’s a radical pro-life goon (clearly battling a myriad of mental issues more likely to force finger-to-trigger than his political opinion), the tactic is different. Any freak on the fringes is made out to be a representative of the Grand Ole Party as a whole. Did you hear what Scott Roeder did? Clearly it was the Glenn Beck’s and Rush Limbaugh’s of this world who whipped this perfectly sane man into a frenzy. And there’s a whole lot more of these freaks out there. More attacks to follow, I’m sure!

So when anti-military activists murder two men in uniform should the Keith Olberman’s and Chris Matthew’s of this world be held responsible? I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard ‘illegal war’, ‘civilian casualties’ or ‘war criminals’ mentioned on MSNBC but that connection isn’t quite as relevant to the media — nor to these reactionist Liberal bloggers.

That leads us to this moment, where pundit after pundit is being marched on the cable news networks to tell us how an 88-year-old James von Brunn is the symptom of some new phenomenon. They tell us that a man hell bent on killing Jewish people was somehow coaxed into doing so by the election of a black President. They read the reactions of the blogs mentioned above and foment fear toward Republicans — all the while claiming those same people are fomenting fear in another direction.

Both James von Brunn and Scott Roeder are mentally unstable loons who were destined to arrive at this fate long before Barack Obama became a force in American politics. They were both in dire straits financially and would have done the same thing if John McCain had won in November. They’re no closer to any members of the Republican party than they are to members of the Democratic party. They are no less offensive and repulsive than Terry Nichols or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Any pundit pinning them to one party or the other is no better than the criminal themselves.

With a media hell bent on helping these Liberal activists push forward the extermination of the Republican party, resistance seems futile. Soon, Republicans will all be deemed militant nutjobs just one Glenn Beck rant away from a bloody rampage. And those with a calmer demeanor? Well, they’re nothing more than doltish prudes who don’t have the intellectual juice to serve in a position of power. You have two choices, dumb or evil.

President Obama has been in power for more than 5 months now. And for those 5 months these political vultures have ignored serious stories to paint Rush Limbaugh and other entertainers as the leadership of the Republican party. MSNBC has an all-out unhealthy obsession with just that. So it’s no surprise that this tactic is working. It’s not jaw-dropping news to me when I hear that this incessant drumbeat has confused the American public. It’s no surprise that the polling data shows their broad influence over the general public.

So don’t be surprised when six months from now a poll suggests American voters view Republicans as radicals and violent people. If you force-feed a message enough, it catches on.

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