Apparently, Sean Hannity found his deceptive exploitation of the California cop-killer manhunt so nice that he did it twice (so far). Last night, Hannity trotted out Tucker Carlson and Kirsten Powers for a bogus depiction of suspect Christopher Dorner as a Democrat followed by a kangaroo-court style verdict that adjudged the left as the guilty party.

You may recall that on Thursday night, Hannity teamed up with Brent Bozell to selectively highlight parts of Dorner’s online manifesto and made him out as a Democrat – all the while ignoring his support for Republicans. Then, as Hannity insisted he was not going to blame Democrats for Dorner’s actions, he instead used the story to blame Democrats for not doing so. Because in the past they had wrongly blamed conservatives for such crazed murders as the massacre in Aurora, Colorado and the shooting in Tucson that gravely wounded Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

Got that? The way Hannity was putting it forth, liberals were wrong to blame conservatives in the first place but because they’re not doing it now when they could (but shouldn't) blame Democrats, they’re even worse – so let’s have two (and counting) whole “news” discussion about it. While patting ourselves on the back for not doing what they did as we cough up dishonest excuses for having good reasons to do so now anyway.

As Hannity sat in front of a blaring headline that read, “HISTORY OF HYPOCRISY,” our poor media victim rehashed the Brian Ross/Aurora incident from the night before. (He saved a Giffords rehash for later). Then, in what can only be seen as a Freudian slip, Hannity opened up the discussion by saying, “Just because this guy liked left wingers, I don’t blame him. I blame them.”

As I wrote in another recent post, I have a lot of respect for Powers. But I find it unfathomable how she not only missed the dishonesty here but eagerly joined in. Did she not know or not care that Dorner also liked Republicans? Or does the term “left wingers” cover the other guys he also gave shout outs to: Chris Christie, George H.W. Bush, Jon Huntsman and Colin Powell?

“When I saw the news that he had written a manifesto and he singled out cable hosts, the first thing I thought was, ‘Please God, don’t let it be a single person from Fox News. Because otherwise, it will be completely Fox News’ fault. Even if there are other people in it,’” Powers began. Well, OK, I can understand that given that she works for Fox. But my mouth dropped open in incomprehension as Powers went on to say, “It turns out, he loves Obama, loves Hillary, loves all these left-wing cable show hosts. Which of course have nothing to do with it. But we know what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot. Which is that Fox News would have been blamed for any deaths that this man caused.”

Let’s put aside for now why the left might have reason to fear the steady diet of incendiary rhetoric that Fox Newsies and their like-minded pals feed to audiences day in and day out. God knows, you’ll never see THAT come under any kind of scrutiny on Fox the way this supposedly VERY SIGNIFICANT brand of “left-wing hypocrisy” does – and will surely continue to receive. But depicting Dorner as loving Obama, Hillary Clinton and “all these left-wing cable show hosts” is at best an incomplete picture of a guy who not only expressed admiration for Bush and Christie but said he did not vote for Obama because he supported Huntsman.

I also have trouble believing that Powers didn’t notice how Hannity “doth protest too much” when he yet again assured us he was not going to blame the left for Dorner even though the left would surely blame him conservatives. Hannity said, “Now, this guy likes Obama. Can I connect – using their logic, I would be able to connect, perhaps, his – his – his words to this guy’s actions. Using their logic. But I don’t do that.”

Instead, Powers gave Hannity's antagonism more credibility by suggesting that the left really is to blame. First, she complained about their criticisms of Sarah Palin for her map "targeting" Giffords' district in Tucson during the contentious 2010 election. Then, in what was almost certainly a pre-planned attack, she gratuitously smeared the Southern Poverty Law Center for having “an actual hate map… that shows places that they consider hate groups and the Family Research Council is on it and somebody went there and killed somebody. …This is, like, an actual killing by somebody who, you know, went there because of a liberal group.”

And other than further denigrating the left (and probably ensuring future bookings on Hannity) that is relevant to the Dorner case, why?

Before anyone assumes otherwise, let me say that I don’t believe Powers cooked up an opinion calculated to win her props from conservatives. I believe she is sincere in her opprobrium. And I’m fine with that. She is still the News Hounds Best In Show for her courageous stand against a previous Fox News meme that was deceptive and dishonest. But how or why she missed the deception and dishonesty here – and then hitched her wagon to it – is just beyond my understanding.

There’s no mystery, however, about what Hannity was up to in this segment.