Remember all that fuss two months ago about violent rhetoric and imagery following the tragic Tucson shootings that almost killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)?

Apparently the folks at Time magazine have forgotten, for on Saturday, they actually published an article with the following headline:

Wisconsin's Governor Wins But Is He Still Dead Man Walker?

The first paragraph wasn't any more delicate:

The state capitol of Wisconsin had taken on an eerie quiet on Friday. Gone were the throngs of protesters who occupied its marble floors like a campground in summer. The midnight honking of cars circling the white building had ceased. The chalk "dead man" outlines etched with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's name on the sidewalks remained in dismembered parts, incompletely washed away by clean-up hoses.

You hadn't heard about these chalk outlines?

Well, that's not surprising. As NewsBusters reported Sunday, most media outlets don't think death threats or violent imagery are a bad thing when Republicans are the target.

Unless there's some other reference I'm missing, the folks at Time were making a pun with Walker's name and the 1995 film "Dead Man Walking."

The article pointed out that he may end up suffering a recall in January or at the polls in 2014. Hence, he could be a dead man walking.

But in a post-Tucson world, especially given the death threats that have been issued against some of Walker's colleagues, is this appropriate?

Just imagine the outrage if Walker was a Democrat, and a conservative magazine like National Review or the Weekly Standard did the same thing.

There'd be calls for immediate apologies from the author and the editor as well as some folks asking for both to be suspended or fired.

But when a liberal publication two months after Tucson makes such a reference to a Republican?

Crickets.