It's fundamental to their psychology, as Digby often observes, for right-wingers to constantly portray themselves as victims -- indeed, the American Right long ago mastered the art of flipping reality on its head and turning attempts to hold them accountable for their predilection for violence into a vicious and unfair attack on their honor -- of turning the perpetrators into victims and the victims into perpetrators. In 1870, it was the "bloody shirt". Today, in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, it's the "blood libel," as Glenn Reynolds puts it.

Indeed, the only thing more predictable than the eventuality of actual violence erupting in a climate of broadly sanctioned violent eliminationist rhetoric is the certainty that the Right will attempt to claim that any discussion of accountability and the need to examine the role our national discourse has in fomenting violence is an attempt to victimize them.

See, for instance, Tea Party Express spokesman Sal Russo this morning on Fox, attempting to claim that Jared Loughner was actually a "far left loon" (sorry, Sal, but that just won't fly). Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin is trying to counter by claiming that it's actually folks on the Left who've been purveying the ugliest rhetoric.

Predictably, there are the usual suspects among the "concerned liberal" segment likewise wringing their hands that we shouldn't jump to conclusions (see especially Jon Chait at "even the liberal" New Republic, and Jack Shafer at Slate).

The bottom line for all of them is that this is just another "isolated incident" because Jared Loughner is just "a lone nut".

Once again, we call that a complete cop-out.

Sure, there are lots of complicating factors, especially Loughner's pretty clearly deranged mental state. But there are also some factors that are simply undeniable, in particular that Giffords was shot in a climate of extraordinarily heated and hateful rhetoric, including the casual associations of guns and targets with Giffords personally.

Moreover, what's equally undeniable is that it comes amid a gradually mounting litany of violence directed against "liberal" and government targets, effectively suggesting a fresh onset of domestic terrorism from the extremist American Right.

Just in the past two and a half years, here's the record of "isolated incidents" amassed so far:

The Giffords shooting brings the tally to 19 total cases of domestic-terrorism inspired by right-wing extremism in the past couple of years. Oh, excuse me: I meant to say "isolated incidents". Because that is how each of these cases was treated -- and how they continue to be reported by the mainstream media, particularly at Fox, which generally does not report on them at all.

We'd like to ask Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin: Exactly how many left-wingers can you find out there who walk into churches, museums and political rallies and shoot people in the head?

When you can name any, then maybe we can talk about how ugly the Left is getting. Until then, all the focus is going to be on the angry people creating a climate in which extremist, unhinging right-wing rhetoric is widely broadcast and officially condoned by supposedly "mainstream" conservatives -- at the very top of the food chain, and through the Right's prominent mass-media organs. That, frankly, is as it should be. Because the toll is mounting.