Rally Round the Flag
- From: jose el fontanero <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 06:39:14 -0700 (PDT)
Rally Round the Flag
Debra J. Saunders
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Imagine it's four years ago and an aide to President Bush posted a
blog on the Whitehouse.gov website that bemoaned Internet criticism of
the Iraq war, then continued: "These rumors often travel just below
the surface via chain emails 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 email or see something on
the web about anti-war protests that seem fishy, send it to
flag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx''
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.
It's laughable: Democrats discrediting protests because -- oooooo --
they're organized. Last year, weren't these same folk guffawing about
Jesus being a community organizer?
I want to be clear: I want nothing to do with any protesters who carry
swastikas, hang our leaders in effigy or show up to disrupt when a
duly elected official speaks. Over the years, I've seen too many signs
depicting the president as a Nazi and too many extremists who think
they are so right that they don't have to respect the free-speech
rights of others.
The problem is: When anti-Bush protesters behaved badly, when Code
Pinkers shouted and anti-war protesters brandished signs with
swastikas, they did not rate nearly as much press scrutiny as the
ObamaCare protesters. There seems to be the impression in my
profession that comparisons of Bush with Hitler were to be expected,
but not of Obama with Hitler. That's below the belt.
Asked about the blog asking readers to flag "protests that seem
fishy," White House spokesman Adam Abrams responded that the intent
was to combat "intentionally misleading" material on the president's
health care agenda. "We are not compiling lists or sources of
information," he added. "We may post fact checks from time to time to
be sure Americans know the truth about health insurance reform."
Be it noted the "disinformation" blog -- titled "Facts Are Stubborn
Things" -- was prompted by the posting of a video clip in which Obama,
running for the U.S. Senate in 2003, said, "I happen to be a proponent
of a single-payer universal health care program." Now Obama supports
allowing people to keep their private plans. The White House cried
foul at the very hint that Obama wants to "eliminate" anyone's current
health care plan.
Politifact.com looked at the clip in July and summed up Obama's
position on single-payer health care thus: "So what we see here is a
candidate who in 2003 was trying to appeal to a liberal electorate and
today has moderated his comments to appeal to a broader national
audience. That's a Half Flip in our view."
Facts are stubborn things. But Democratic leaders are not stubborn. If
the Bush White House had asked Americans to "flag" critics, you know
that Pelosi and Boxer would have demanded that the Bushies spike that
blog. But now, with their man in the White House, they're up with the
organization. As long as it's their organization.
Copyright © 2009 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.
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