Republicans are measuring their responses to the Tucson shooting spree, sometimes hitting back at liberals and/or the media, and sometimes finding another way. Rick Santorum leads a WSJ story today:

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who has made many trips to states that come early in the presidential nominating process, said the post-shooting debate highlighted what he sees as a key distinction between the two parties.

"The left always looks at things through the prism of government, so they are saying: Where was the state, where was the school?" Mr. Santorum said, talking by telephone from New Hampshire. "I would say: Where were the parents, the friends, the neighbors?"

Mr. Santorum wrote a book published in 2005 called "It Takes a Family," in which he argued that the family, and not the government, is the key building block of society. In an interview Tuesday, he singled out the parents of the alleged Arizona shooter, Jason Lee Loughner, asking: "Who are the people who know this man? And what were they doing about it?"

In related news Sarah Palin is addressing the shooting and its political fallout in a video message, saying “journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

As the WSJ notes, using the term "blood libel" may stir up even more criticism for the former Alaska gov:

The phrase refers to false claims against minorities — most commonly, assertions dating to the Middle Ages that Jews murdered Christian children in order to use their blood in holiday rituals. Such claims were often used to inflame hatred against Jews.

Here's more on that from Jonah Goldberg at the National Review.

(h/t PoliticsPa)