In the wake of this weekend’s tragic events in Tuscon, Ariz. (and in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste), Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.), the third-ranking House Democrat, said that now might be a good time to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

He also not-so-subtly suggested, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the Tea Party played a role in the shooter’s motivation for the attack. From an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier:

The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech, Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling on elected officials and media pundits to use ‘better judgment.’
‘Free speech is as free speech does,’ he said. ‘You cannot yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.
‘Clyburn used as an example a comment made by Sharron Angle, an unsuccessful U.S. senatorial candidate in Nevada, who said the frustrated public may consider turning to ‘Second Amendment remedies’ for political disputes unless Congress changed course.
Clyburn said the man accused of shooting Giffords did just that.
‘He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that’s what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection,’ Clyburn said.

Hard to top this rebuttal from freshman Rep. Tim Scott (R., S.C.): “A 9-year-old little girl is gone and the Fairness Doctrine is not going to bring her back.”

More here.