Consider the source: Hastings accepted a $150,000 bribe when he was a federal judge, he was then removed from office by the U.S. Senate in 1989 after being impeached and convicted. Still didn’t stop Dems from electing him to Congress in 1993.

(Rep. Alcee Hastings/Politico)– Since my colleague Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot with 18 others in Tucson, our nation has focused on the links connecting poisonous political discourse; fanaticism and derangement; and guns. We have heard many proposals — laws to make it harder to get guns, laws to make it far easier.

But mostly, we hear a call for “civility” — though not from those who use the shrillest violent rhetoric against their political foils. Maybe now we can finally see the importance of acting with respect and understanding, despite our differing political agendas.

Giffords was shot — and six others tragically murdered — in part because our violent political expression inspired a mentally unstable person, who had preposterously easy access to previously banned weapons. The pundits can repeatedly claim that Jared Lee Loughner was a “madman.” But we all know that he was neither the first nor the last.

To fail to address these three factors — violent speech, mental illness and easy access to guns — is to waste this powerful, tragic moment in U.S. political history.