Keith Olbermann’s Fox News-hating frenzy on Monday night might have obscured the nasty accusations against pro-lifers Olbermann drew out of Richard Wolffe, who recently left his job as a political reporter at Newsweek to be a full-time MSNBC pundit.

Wolffe said Tiller’s killing had a "direct link" to people yelling "Kill him" at McCain-Palin rallies and insisted pro-lifers need to look themselves hard in the mirror and ask themselves "Have I played a part" in Tiller’s death by charging that Tiller "committed horrendous acts"?

Wolffe also insisted Republicans were hypocrites for objecting to "Muslim terrorism" while encouraging terrorism against abortion doctors, since that's a natural "result" of abortion protests:

OLBERMANN: The homeland security secretary, Ms. Napolitano, bowed to Republican outrage in April, apologizing for that DHS assessment that warned of violent acts by right-wing extremists - are the Republicans in Congress still of the belief that the threat of right-wing extremist violence is some sort of fantasy out of the Obama administration?

WOLFFE: Well, Republicans in Congress want to have it both ways. They want to endorse the goals and aims of that movement and not be seen to endorse the results of that movement. And it strikes me as very curious that people who claim to have a zero tolerance for those who incite Muslim terrorism, who incite that kind of hatred towards America, find it very easy to turn a blind eye to people who incite hatred and violence towards Americans who are going about their legal work in America today.

And there is a direct link. And just to cite someone who maybe has some experience of violence in America, John Lewis -- remember, when he said in the campaign, when those people at the McCain rallies who are saying "kill him" about the now-president of the United States, John Lewis said there is a direct link here between those who fan this kind of mob sentiment and the violence this country has seen.

You know, they need to look closely in the mirror today and say, "Have I played a part -- no matter how smart -- have I played a part in what has ended up as a very sad event for one man and his family?"

Olbermann then wanted to insist that the Tiller killing means Sotomayor should get a free pass on abortion in the upcoming confirmation hearings:

OLBERMANN: We saw -- Dr. Tiller, obviously, come up in the nomination process for [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius. The GOP`s not going to bring this up in connection with abortion and Roe v. Wade and Sotomayor. Is it -- I mean, this is now third rail stuff, is it not?

WOLFFE: Well, the name is, but I don`t think the fortunes of the Republican Party are nearly strong enough to say to this hardcore piece of the base -- and I`m not talking about those who would embrace violence, but those who embrace the goals of that movement -- it`s not strong enough to say, "You know what, we condemn this." And that`s why our ears are ringing with the violence of the condemnation here.

Yes, people lament the violence and the death, but they actually try and justify these acts by saying that the man was evil or committing horrendous acts. Again, he was within the law. And if you want to change the law, then you should debate the law, not go out and incite hatred. And if you incite hatred, it leads to violence.

Is Wolffe such a die-hard liberal, or such an Obama lapdog, that he hasn’t considered that the Democrats also have a "hardcore base" on this issue – a base that thinks Tiller was a saint for performing abortions late in pregnancy when the vast majority of Americans oppose them in the polls, when asked?

Wolffe was followed on Countdown by "conservative" gay blogger Andrew Sullivan, who insisted, "speaking as a believing Christian," that "this murderer attacked Christianity" by shooting Tiller in a church. He insisted strangely that Tiller was a "private person" and shouldn’t have been publicly opposed:

This murderer attacked Christianity. These people and the way they demonize private people -- these aren`t public officials who can take a little bit of rough-tough out there in the dialogue, these are private people acting within the law, being basically -- I mean, not just this murder. He was targeted for months, for years. He was hit before. And if our society can’t protect these people doing what is legal -- even if we disagree with it -- then we’re lost. We’re finished.

It's bad enough that Sullivan would equate a late-term abortionist with the essence of Christianity. Like many liberals, Sullivan can't seem to distinguish between peaceful protesters and violent criminals. There's a huge difference between being "targeted" for silent protests by rosary-clutchers and being shot. If not, is every Code Pink protest at a military recruiting center at attack on "private persons" doing something legal, which might encourage shooting our soldiers?

Sullivan also displayed his unfamiliarity with the current pro-life movement in assuming that Operation Rescue is still represented by its founder, Randall Terry. He assaulted Operation Rescue for failing to condemn the murder, when its current leader, Troy Newman, did exactly that.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.