Pima County GOP Chair Calls On Obama To ‘Stop The Blame’

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TUCSON, AZ — With President Obama reportedly set to visit this divided and mourning Arizona city Wednesday, the chair of the county Republican Party is calling on the president to help put an end to what he calls “assigning blame” in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at a constituent event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) that left six dead and the congresswoman gravely wounded.

Brian Miller called on Obama to “lead the effort to stop the blame” after the shooting, responsibility for which he says has been unfairly placed on the shoulders of Republicans and the right.

Miller said “of course we welcome the president” to Tucson and hopes Obama will help put an end to the deep partisan divisions in this city that have continued unabated in the aftermath of the multiple homicide Saturday morning.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Moment Of Silence: Nation Reflects On Tragic Arizona Shooting]

“I understand [the national reaction] is political,” Miller said. “But there will be plenty of time for that.”

“Every time a politico opens their mouth it’s about blame,” he added. “And we shouldn’t be about blame here in Tucson.”

“No one knows” the motivations of alleged shooter Jared Loughner, Miller said. He criticized those like Pima County Democratic Party chair Jeff Rogers who have said some of the responsibility for the shootings lies in the hands of Republicans and tea partiers who led a heated campaign against Giffords last year.

“Everything is conjecture at this point,” Miller said.

Rogers told me today that he thinks Loughner was pushed to allegedly shoot Giffords by the rhetoric of the tea party and the GOP. He said that a full investigation of the crime and Loughner — who many on the right consider an apolitical mentally deranged assassin — will prove him right in the end.

Miller said Rogers’ talk is, at best, counterproductive.

“He just doesn’t get it,” Miller told me, referring to Rogers. “Every time he continues to cast blame he’s just fomenting anger.”

At the same time he urges caution, Miller is also planning a different path than some on the right here in Tucson. On the night of the shooting, the local chair of the Tea Party Patriots told TPM she doesn’t see a need to change tactics in the wake of the shooting. Miller, on the other hand, said the county GOP will probably make changes in the way it campaigns after the murders.

“Obviously after an event like this there should be some introspection and retrospection,” Miller told me. “I do think there will be a tempering, and I’ll do it [at the county GOP.]”

Miller said the changes he envisions in future Tucson-area campaigns are the same changes he hoped to bring to the county GOP when he took over in December.

“I have always said that it is proper to focus on policy instead of the demonization of the individual,” he said. He declined to name any specific rhetoric or tactics from the last campaign cycle he won’t support the next time around, but he said he’ll advise people to tone it down if he sees things getting out of hand.

Still, Miller says he still sees the need for tough campaigns — and he intends to wage them. But he says for now, Tucson needs to focus on healing and not politics.

“I guess it will be a good sign when we get back to ‘heated campaign rhetoric,'” he said.

Correction: This post originally misstated the amount of time Miller has served as chair of the Pima County GOP. We regret the error.

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