Popular social network used for serious politics.

The founder of Daily Kos took the extraordinary step of blaming President Obama’s culture of violence for Saturday’s murder attempt on Arizona Representative Gabrielle Gifford. He tweeted his accusation on the Twitter social network site writing, “Mission Accomplished, Mr. President”.

“When a candidate for President of the United States tells his followers to ‘bring a gun to the fight’ and to ‘hit back twice as hard’, that’s crossing the line,” Moulitsas said in an associated blog post.

White House critics accuse Moulitsas of similar rhetoric. One of the writers on the Daily Kos, BoyBlue, ranted that “she is now dead to me” mere days before the shooting, and his site used targets to encourage Giffords’s opponents to “attack” her.

Moulitsas defended BoyBlue¹ and also the use of target-related imagery. “That’s just political engagement,” said Moulitsas. “We wanted her targeted in the primaries, not with guns. Furthermore, I’m a private citizen, not a public official. Obama is the President. His violent rhetoric brought that gun to this fight. He calls the shots; he might as well have pulled the trigger himself.”

Moulitsas added that the flag-burning atheist Jared Loughner—who listed Marx’s Communist Manifesto among his favorite books—was an obvious Obama devotee. “That’s the kind of person the President likes to surround himself with,” said Moulitsas. “Look at the facts. Loughner was an Arizona version of his Chicago friend Bill Ayers. Obama’s association with such people sends the wrong message. It’s an all-clear for potential assassins throughout the far left to attack more moderate politicians.”

Diarist BoyBlue vents frustrations against Giffords’s voting record.

CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer made similar accusations, attempting to link the shooter to the President in an interview with congressional reporter Jessica Yellin, citing Daily Kos tweets and Democratic election rhetoric. The White House disagreed, saying “the media is really jumping the gun on this one.”

Moulitsos also voiced disappointment over the killer’s including Marx’s book in his favorites list. “I’ll never be able to look at communism the same again,” he said. Noting that he no longer supports Obama or communism because of this shooting, he added “I may even join a local tea party. Unlike the Democrats, the Tea Party has been one of the most peaceful, law-abiding movements in history. One and a half million Tea Partiers marched peacefully in Washington, for example, and there wasn’t a single arrest or disturbance.”