First, we should give credit where credit is due. 

The administration, the Democratic Party, and the mainstream media - all of whom play for the same team - pulled off an astounding feat of jiu-jitsu after the terror attacks in Orlando.

Omar Mateen was an Islamic radical who had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State.  Mateen's own words could not be more clear.  On the very day of the attack, he wrote this on Facebook:  'May Allah accept me.'  

Got that?  That's Allah, as in 'Allahu Akbar.'

But many on the left, infused with an inexplicable aversion to Islamic-inspired terror, searched for some other rationale for the carnage.  Just about any rationale would do.  Here are a few of the more egregious examples:

- The New York Daily News blamed the National Rifle Association for opposing a ban on 'assault rifles.'  Never mind the fact that Mateen's Sig Sauer MCX may not actually fit the definition of an assault rifle.  Then again, the wretched Daily News blames the NRA for psoriasis.

- The New York Times, allegedly a more respectable newspaper, ran an especially despicable editorial.  'Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred toward gays and lesbians,' the editorial writers omnisciently proclaimed, and blamed that on Republicans.  

- CNN contributor Sally Kohn theorized that the real villains in this slaughter are...Christians.  Her logic is too twisted to follow, but it goes something like this:  If you oppose same-sex marriage, you might as well have pulled the trigger at Pulse.

- Congressman James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, said, 'This is not about ISIS, this is not about any kind of foreign terror.'  Apparently the congressman knows more about Mateen's motivation than the killer himself. 

There are countless other examples of perfidy that began within hours after the ISIS devotee's rampage.  Our political leaders were only slightly more circumspect.

President Obama finally proved that he can be absolutely enraged after an act of terror.  Unfortunately, his palpable anger was directed at Donald Trump, who had chastised the president for eschewing the term 'radical Islamic terrorism.'

The world might actually be a safer place if the president was just as angry at radical Islam itself.  Perhaps we'd see that kind of visceral reaction if Donald Trump pledged allegiance to ISIS.

On the other side of the political divide-turned-chasm, conservatives and Republicans tended to view the attack as pure Islamic terrorism.  But they don't get a free pass.

Many on the right stick their fingers in their ears when confronted about gun violence, which is indeed a deadly problem in America.  They immediately invoke the sacrosanct Second Amendment and its 27 words.

But the right to bear arms does not confer the right to possess a hand grenade, bazooka, or even a fully automatic machine gun.  Congress should debate what kinds of weapons are to be banned in the USA, while individual states can decide for themselves who can carry concealed weapons.

There are rare moments when a terror attack brings America together.  Think of the reaction after 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing.  But those horrendous acts did not involve firearms or a gay bar, so there was no way for the left to run their usual misdirection. 

We should be clear about a few things.  It is blindingly obvious that many Islamic jihadists are at war with us and the West.  Yet the American left, for whatever reason, always leaps to deny any correlation between Islam and terror.  Even when the killers openly and proudly declare their faith. 

Meanwhile, too many on the American right leap to avoid any debate about high-powered weaponry.  And, hey, it's not easy to leap while in the middle of a knee-jerk reaction.  Gun people have to learn the definition of 'compromise.'

Crazed ideologues on both sides actually help the terrorists.  And so do weak leaders in Congress and the White House.  On both fronts and on all sides, we can do so much better.

Thoughts and prayers are good and valuable things.  But they are just not enough to stop the madness.