by Debra J. Saunders, SFGate.com
Imagine it’s four years ago and an aide to President George W. Bush posted a blog on the Whitehouse.gov Web site that bemoaned Internet criticism of the Iraq war, then continued: “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversations.
Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about anti-war protests that seem fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
Substitute the words “health insurance reform” for “anti-war protests,” and you get the exact wording of a blog posted by Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media, on Tuesday.
“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his politics to the White House,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in a letter to President Obama. “I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program.”
No lie.
Now I don’t think Obamaland was working on an “enemies list” – as some conservatives have charged. But I do want to note how deftly the left has abandoned its old rallying cry, “Dissent is patriotic.”
Democratic leaders have taken to dissing health care dissenters who show up at town-hall meetings conducted by members of Congress visiting their districts – and not just for the boorish behavior of the loudmouths.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, dismissed protesters as “AstroTurf” – artificial grassroots support. On MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., exhorted the media to investigate town-hall protesters, as “This is just all organized.”
And: “You in the media have to take a look at what’s going on here. This is all planned. It’s to hurt our president and it’s to change the Congress.”
When Boxer grilled Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about what personal price the childless Rice paid for the Iraq war, Boxer later boasted that she was “speaking truth to power.” But when angry voters try to do the same with elected officials, whether they’re heckling them or just showing up, Boxer wants the media to investigate.
4 comments ↓
To paraphrase John Paul Jones, "They have not yet begun to snoop and spy!"
I saw Obama make this statement on TV. But I got a different perspective than what others seem to have gathered. I thought he meant that the questions being posed and the statements being made could be answered if he and his Staff could keep up with them. Rather than being something insidious, I think it was an honest desire to give truth a chance.
It is a far cry from what Bush had going. If you remember he signed a directive seeking to establish a Committee to Seine the Internet to find people who's thought patterns might indicate that their dissent could be used as an excuse to charge them with crimes that they could possibly commit in the future.
Now that is something that was scary. And why I have called for Obama's Impeachment is because he has let every one of the Bush directives remain intact. And that is much more scary that his request for information.
Nobody in the white house says dissent is unpatriotic. This is a misrepresentation. This is clearly an attempt to get the truth out during a time when there are people who are making ridiculous claims and flat out lies. I cannot imagine why anyone who truly thinks they are right would be against battling lies.
This author does not seem particularly concerned with the truth. That is sad, but not surprising. Much of this truly is astroturfing.. we know the name of the organizations, we know the names of their leaders, and we know when they created websites and who pays for those websites. These protestors are not generally going there on their own.. they are organized by Freedomworks (Dick Armey) and other organizations which are funded by the wealthy and powerful. Definitely not grass roots, and not a hard thing to investigate.. provided you prefer the truth to comfortable lies.
If you truly want a grass roots upswelling of support, then you should be willing to call what is going on now astroturfing. If you are ashamed of the truth, try to be part of the change.. enough of these stale old lies and whitewashing.
I agree with you JTK. Some of the tripe I have heard about Health care is real ugly and even more untruthful. Does any sane person in America think that our Health system is as good as it could be? Does any sane person deny that Health costs and corruption are like a runaway freight train coming down the mountain?
Our Health system needs to be fixed and people who parrot the lies of the Insurance industry cannot be that stupid. Many of them are loud mouthing just to harm the current administration. They were Bush supporters then and they are Bush supporters now. They really don't give a second thought how the demise of America ultimately will harm them. They just want to get the N….. out.
Sad commentary about almost 50% of the people.
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