As we reported last night the far-left in America misreported the Navy Yard massacre story, trying to gin up anti-gun sentiment in America. In case you missed it, that "Talking Points Memo" is post on BillOReilly.com.

Part of the anti-gun hysteria was this political cartoon by a left winger named Bill Day. It shows the Navy Yard emblem in front of the Capitol building with a semiautomatic rifle dominating the cartoon. A number of liberal Democrats embraced that image, including Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen.

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COHEN: I got the vitriol on the Twitter from all these people that oppose that cartoon. They are hard core Republicans who this means more to them. I think their guns are right there next to their bibles. I'm not sure which they find more important to them.

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O'REILLY: So Mr. Cohen who declined to appear on THE FACTOR this evening tries to pettifog the real issue that an assault rifle was not used in the Navy Yard killings and that the left tried to exploit the mass murder for political reasons. That is despicable.

Now let's deal with the accusation against Republicans made by Cohen. "Talking Points" calculates that about 20 percent of the Republican Party are fundamentalists. That is they do not believe in compromise and want a very conservative nation. By contrast, about 15 percent of Americans are rabidly left, believing the USA is basically not a noble country and that socialism should be imposed to make it better. So there are extremists on both sides.

But most, most conservative Republicans do not base their political belief system on the bible. And they are not putting guns above all the other issues. Traditional Americans will understand that spirituality is a good thing, because it can provide a vivid guideline for just behavior. That is why the founding fathers used Judeo-Christian philosophy to forge the Constitution. On the gun front, the founders clearly believe that every American has a right to defend him or herself from tyrannical government or tyrannical people who would harm the person.

And that's why the Second Amendment was put into the Constitution. There is a logic to responsible religion and to gun possession. But not to Congressman Cohen and others who seek to demean people who are religious and believe in gun rights. You remember President Obama got into trouble doing that during his first campaign.

This country faces very tough problems. And these diversions are stupid. Simply put, Congressman Cohen would badly lose a debate with me. You know it and he knows it. He would be reduced to pudding on THE FACTOR. That is why Cohen will not appear.

That being said, fanaticism on the right also harming the country -- responsible lawmakers have to find a way to deal with their opponents in Congress. There's no way Obamacare is going to be defunded. It is not going to happen. So why bother alienating Independent Americans by embracing a futile exercise?

Karl Rove has an interesting column on that in the "Wall Street Journal" today.

And that's "The Memo."

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