Jonah Goldberg on Hoffa: There'd Be No Controversy If We Didn't Have 'Bonfire of Asininity' After Tucson

National Review's Jonah Goldberg on Tuesday, appearing on Fox News's "Special Report," put James Hoffa's Labor Day attack on the Tea Party in proper perspective.

"We would not be in this mess, we would not have this controversy, if we did not have this bonfire of asininity that came out of the Tucson shootings where all of a sudden Sarah Palin’s Facebook Congressional map was somehow to blame for not only this madman but for all of the violence overtaking America" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW: We are in a really weird place where the head of the Teamsters can’t talk tough. I mean, I guess ex-cons are the only ones left who can still talk like men every now and then. We would not be in this mess, we would not have this controversy, if we did not have this bonfire of asininity that came out of the Tucson shootings where all of a sudden Sarah Palin’s Facebook Congressional map was somehow to blame for not only this madman but for all of the violence overtaking America. And for all I know listening to some of these people on MSNBC, it was responsible for Lee Harvey Oswald.

I mean, it was absolutely bizarre standard that was established that was led by, that Barack Obama picked it up. He created the standard for themselves where any martial metaphor, any tough language like this was automatically by their own words and their own standards set up as to being inciting violence and what not, and now it's blowing up in their faces if I’m allowed to say that. And they deserve it.

He's got a point.

As was said by many conservatives back in January after the tragic shootings in Tucson, there was absolutely nothing inflammatory about Palin's target map or her comments about not retreating - reloading.

Military terminology has been used in politics since before we were all born.

Yet the disgraceful behavior by some Democrats and many of their media minions has now made conservatives fight fire with fire.

In essence, the Right is emulating the liberal hypocrisy of political correctness.

Do we win by behaving like what we find offensive?