Politico pretzel logic

Politico pretzel logic

by digby

Wow, Politico is really going for it:

If confirmed, this will likely be a much, much bigger image problem than the reports of crime in Occupy encampments:

Authorities suspect [Oscar Ramiro] Ortega-Hernandez had been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park Police say Ortega-Hernandez may have spent time with Occupy D.C. protesters.

The mirror-image campaigns to tar the tea party and the Occupy movement are based, in no small part, on guilt by association. But nobody anywhere near the tea party ever took a shot at the White House.

I don’t know. That guy could easily have walked around a tea party event at some point. If you’re going with that kind of rank speculation, this would certainly make one wonder:

Sources say a police investigation uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega-Hernandez has a fixation on the White House.

It’s Tea Partiers who are fixated on the White House, not the Occupiers.

I’m joking, of course. Who knows what makes this guy tick? The story also says that the police believe the man is mentally ill. And it’s true that the Occupy encampments have provided food and shelter for the mentally ill and the homeless who live in the streets of American towns and cities, so it’s certainly possible that he was seen there. Clearly, doing such a thing is a generous gesture that only proves no good deed goes unpunished in this country.

Update: