AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

And this morning I watched Arlan Spector in another town hall meeting in which most of the constiuents there were anti-H.R. 3200. No shouting or disrespect.

and here's yet another head case going off about everything under the sun except health care...

George W. Bush stared out the window of his limousine at the largest protest of his presidency. A thousand angry demonstrators"maybe more"were rampaging through the streets of Oregon utterly overwhelming the meager contingent of police trying to restore order. The motorcade was headed directly into a melee so chaotic that the Secret Service could no longer guarantee the president’s safety. Indeed, three minutes before Bush’s limousine was supposed to make its final approach to the hotel, police lost control of Taylor Street altogether. They radioed the Secret Service, frantically directing the motorcade to a secondary route. Furious, the agents swung the president south and tried another approach. But the sophisticated protesters, using scouts with cell phones, got wind of Plan B. They rush to head off Bush before he could penetrate the barricades surrounding the Hilton. Street cops joined in the footrace, hoping to prevent at calamity at Sixth Avenue. The president suddenly understood why his father had nicknamed this city “Little Beirut”.

More than anything, the younger Bush was struck by the virulence of the demonstrators. Although he was accustomed to encountering protests in almost every city he visited, most were perfunctory, half-hearted affairs, largely overshadowed by crowds of exuberant supporters. One almost felt sorry for the protesters, as if they were committing some unfortunate social gaffe. But these Portland protesters were different. They were seething with, well hatred"there was no other word for it. Bush could see it in their contorted faces as they lunged toward the limousine, shrieking at the top of their lungs and extending their middle fingers. They jabbed placards that bore the most vulgar epithets imaginable. . . .

. . . .The Protesters seemed to take delight in such in-your-face vulgarity. One of them held a large pho9tograph that had been doctored to depict a gun barrel pressed against the president’s temple. Another waved a sign declared, BUSH: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE with an X over the word “alive” . . .
--Bill Sammons in his book Misunderestimated " Chapter One: “Rise of the Bush Haters " Page 1 and 2

GOP boards up the 'town hall'
By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON " Republicans in Congress have a game plan to avoid "March madness" when they go home this weekend to talk to constituents about Social Security during a two-week holiday recess.

Shaken by raucous protests at open "town hall"-style meetings last month, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio and other GOP leaders are urging lawmakers to hold lower-profile events this time.

Republicans plan to heed President Bush's call Wednesday "to talk to their constituents not only about the problem, but about solutions" to Social Security's looming financial shortfall. The president wants to allow workers to divert some payroll taxes into private investment accounts.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll conducted late last month found that only 35% approve of Bush's handling of the issue. Yet the importance of debate on the matter was reinforced by a separate Gallup Poll on Wednesday, in which nearly one in four adults said Social Security will be the most important problem facing the nation in 25 years. That's more than double the number who said so a year ago.

This month, Republican leaders say they are chucking the open town-hall format. They plan to visit newspaper editorial boards and talk to constituents at Rotary Club lunches, senior citizen centers, chambers of commerce meetings and local businesses. In those settings, "there isn't an opportunity for it to disintegrate into something that's less desirable," says Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Republican leaders are urging their party's lawmakers to take the spotlight off themselves by convening panels of experts from the Social Security Administration, conservative think tanks, local colleges and like-minded interest groups to answer questions about the federal retirement program.

The shift in venues and formats, Santorum says, is aimed at producing "more of an erudite discussion" about Social Security's problems and possible solutions.

Santorum was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers.

MoveOn, which campaigned against Bush's re-election and is now focused on defeating his Social Security proposals, has issued a guide for activists. It includes such tips as: "Ask pointed questions that put the representative or senator on record on important issues like benefit cuts, raising the retirement age and new debt necessary to pay for privatization." It also includes a section on "How to talk to a conservative about Social Security (if you must)." The group says it sent activists to 28 meetings.

Pryce says of such efforts: "It's 'Rabble Rousing 101.' " She contends that the groups gave their followers "everything but eggs to throw at us."

Pryce says many Republicans "came back amazed at the depths that the opposition is going to and a little wiser about how to promote our issues." She says opposition tactics scared away constituents with "legitimate concerns," and Republicans now want to "put a little more control back into it."

But many other Republican lawmakers didn't hold Social Security events last month. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas says he was "disappointed" by how few Republicans held town halls during the Presidents Day recess: 95 out of 232.

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum says of her Republican colleagues, "They either don't support (the president's plan) or they can't defend it." McCollum plans to speak in the neighboring districts of Republicans Mark Kennedy and John Kline, neither of whom held Social Security town halls last month.

Pryce said Wednesday that 50 to 80 House Republicans planned Social Security events this month, including Kline. Her spokesman, Greg Crist, said that the number is even higher and that Republican members "are on track to best" their February total. But details are sketchy.

"There are some people who are probably shying away" from holding meetings, says Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who offered advice on how to avoid disruptions to her fellow Republicans at a House caucus meeting last week. Capito, a veteran of town-hall meetings in other years that she has "not been able to control," reported that two recent district meetings went off without a hitch.

"You don't call on (protesters) when you see them in the audience, because you know who your constituents are," says Capito, who doesn't plan any public events on Social Security this month.

Pryce denies that her party's members would limit participants or audiences to supporters, as the Bush administration has done during its current 60-day Social Security tour.

But Crist says most panels will include like-minded participants, as they did when lawmakers held similar events during the debate in 2003 over a Medicare prescription-drug benefit. Back then, AARP officials who supported the Medicare plan took part in Republican forums. This time, the 35-million-member seniors group is opposed to Bush's plan and will not be invited to take part in Republicans' events.

Republicans "like staging events in front of strictly partisan audiences," says Tom Matzzie, MoveOn's Washington director. "They're trying to create political theater in the place of political discussion and debate."

MoveOn, which campaigned against Bush's re-election and is now focused on defeating his Social Security proposals, has issued a guide for activists. It includes such tips as: "Ask pointed questions that put the representative or senator on record on important issues like benefit cuts, raising the retirement age and new debt necessary to pay for privatization." It also includes a section on "How to talk to a conservative about Social Security (if you must)." The group says it sent activists to 28 meetings.

Santorum was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers.

That's one way to avoid confrontation.

Quote:

MoveOn, which campaigned against Bush's re-election and is now focused on defeating his Social Security proposals, has issued a guide for activists. It includes such tips as: "Ask pointed questions that put the representative or senator on record on important issues like benefit cuts, raising the retirement age and new debt necessary to pay for privatization." It also includes a section on "How to talk to a conservative about Social Security (if you must)." The group says it sent activists to 28 meetings.

'Pointed questions.' Hardly the same as shouting down anyone who disagrees with you.

Cycloptichorn

Santorum was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers.

The point being that you and Blatham and a few other hyper-partisans are attempting to paint your side as somehow more noble and more fair and more reasonable than the other side. It isn't. It hasn't been. And it probably never will be.

Dem Congressman Dennis Moore: I've Gotten Threats Over Health Care Bill
By Eric Kleefeld - August 12, 2009, 11:25AM

Another Democratic Congressman now says he has received threats over the health care bill: Dennis Moore of Kansas.

Moore told the Fox affiliate in Kansas City that he has received two separate threats in the last ten days. Moore also said that because of the threats, and because of the examples he's seen from other members' town halls, he won't be hold any town halls himself.

"I expect to have differences with people, differences of opinion. And, I respect people's opinions. But, I expect exchanges we have to be respectful and not threatening," said Moore. "As a former prosecutor, I certainly do not tolerate threats well and that's why I contacted the police department."

Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) and Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) have also announced that they've received threats. Also, a district office of Rep. David Scott (D-GA) was recently vandalized with a large swastika.

By Bill Sammon
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

News outlets that are focusing on the incendiary rhetoric of conservatives outside President Obama's town hall meeting Tuesday ignored the incendiary rhetoric -- and even violence -- of liberals outside an appearance by former President George W. Bush in 2002.

When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting "Bush is a terrorist!", the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.

One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush's assassination. The man held a large photo of Bush that had been doctored to show a gun barrel pressed against his temple.

"BUSH: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE," read the placard, which had an X over the word "ALIVE."

Another poster showed Bush's face with the words: "F--- YOU, MOTHERF---ER!"

A third sign urged motorists to "HONK IF YOU HATE BUSH." A fourth declared: "CHRISTIAN FASCISM," with a swastika in place of the letter S in each word.

Although reporters from numerous national news organizations were traveling with Bush and witnessed the protest, none reported that protesters were shrieking at Republican donors epithets like "Slut!" "Whore!" and "Fascists!"

Frank Dulcich, president and CEO of Pacific Seafood Group, had a cup of liquid thrown into his face, and then was surrounded by a group of menacing protesters, including several who wore masks. Donald Tykeson, 75, who had multiple sclerosis and was confined to a wheelchair, was blocked by a thug who threatened him.

Protesters slashed the tires of several state patrol cruisers and leapt onto an occupied police car, slamming the hood and blocking the windshield with placards. A female police officer was knocked to the street by advancing protesters, badly injuring her wrist.

The angry protest grew so violent that the Secret Service was forced to take the highly unusual step of using a backup route for Bush's motorcade because the primary route had been compromised by protesters, one of whom pounded his fist on the president's moving limousine.

All the while, angry demonstrators brandished signs with incendiary rhetoric, such as "9/11 - YOU LET IT HAPPEN, SHRUB," and "BUSH: BASTARD CHILD OF THE SUPREME COURT." One sign read: "IMPEACH THE COURT-APPOINTED JUNTA AND THE FASCIST, EGOMANIACAL, BLOOD-SWILLING BEAST!"

Yet none of these signs were cited in the national media's coverage of the event. By contrast, the press focused extensively on over-the-top signs held by Obama critics at the president's town hall event held Tuesday in New Hampshire.

The lead story in Wednesday's Washington Post, for example, is headlined: "Obama Faces 'Scare Tactics' Head-On."

"As the president spoke, demonstrators outside held posters declaring him a socialist and dubbing him 'Obamahdinejad,' in reference to Iran's president," the Post reported. "People screamed into bullhorns to protest a bigger government role in health care. 'Nobama Deathcare!' one sign read. A young girl held up a sign that said: 'Obama Lies, Grandma Dies.' Images of a protester wearing what appeared to be a gun were shown on television."

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that a Democratic congressman discovered that "an opponent of health care reform hanged him in effigy" and was confronted by "200 angry conservatives." The article lamented "increasingly ugly scenes of partisan screaming matches, scuffles, threats and even arrests."

No such coverage was given to the Portland protest of Bush by The New York Times or the Washington Post, which witnessed the protest.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/12/analysis-press-largely-ignored-incendiary-rhetoric-bush-protest/

Nor has anybody from the Obama camp ventured an answer for how a President who has prompted swooning and 'slain in the spirit' at his campaign rallies, who is touted as the greatest hope ever presented to America, who is worshipped and adored and praised and defended passionately by his disciples. . . . . who enjoys almost 100% support and deference by the mainstream media . . . .who enjoys substantial and filibuster proof majorities in the House and Senate . . . .how is it that this amazing leader has been unable to get much of anything accomplished to make the people cheer? And why is he generating so much opposition?

Is it at all possible that he is out of step with the majority of American people and doesn't have their interests at heart at all? The polls would suggest that the majority of the American people think he doesn't.

Aug 11 2009, 11:27 am by Marc Ambinder
How Conservatives Are Blowing Their Chance

President Obama is on his way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire at this hour for a town hall meeting on health care. At this same hour last week, several of the President's top political advisers were meeting in a White House conference room to discuss the appearance, over the first weekend in August, of a coordinated effort to scare Democratic lawmakers who planned to attend town hall meetings into a state of panic. A week later, and the Atlantic's tricorder readings are picking up much calmer electromagnetic energy from the White House. Getting Democrats to attend the town hall meetings was really an intermediate goal. But Democrats are beginning to notice that opponents of health care reform have discredited themselves. They ramped up much too quickly. When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself. There were plenty of activists who really wanted to know about health care, and some who were probably misinformed -- scared out of their chairs -- to some degree, but the loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock.

The American people remain anxious and confused about health care reform. That is an underlying reality that Republican activists are so eager to exploit. But doing so required a certain restraint -- and a willingness to traffic in at least approximate truths -- and an ability to make distinctions within their own ranks about which tactics were valid and which tactics were venomous. It also required a sophistication about the media. The base condition here is an enthusiastic Republican base and a depressed Democratic base. A coherent, organized effort would have recognized that the moment the media began to take sides was the moment that the entire enterprise could be damaged. The media, being a collection of different megaphones, reported on the town hall meetings in one of two ways, both damaging to Republicans. Either they credulously reported the louder, angrier voices (inherently damaging to Republicans in this case) or they reported on the political architecture of the town hall meetings, which plays down the substance of the protests.

Remember, the target audience for Republicans is Blue Dog Democrats in Congress. They won't panic unless they perceive organic anxiety. The White House's goal was to prevent the Blue Dogs from panicking. The swing constituents in these congressional districts aren't angry Republicans, and the Blue Dogs know this. They're political independents for whom the sanctity of the process is important. These are the type of voters who like President Obama because he appears willing to bring people together even though they don't agree with their policies.

As usual, in a pattern that the left patented during the Bush administration, the organized right lost control of its message. Lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, were being asked to respond to non-sequiturs (would you support a health care reform plan that grows the deficit? Health care grows the deficit right now, so it's a nonsense question, one that is easy for politicians to answer); ; they found their meetings full of engorged spleens. Unrestrained, these town hall meetings are going to turn off the type of voters Republicans most need to pressure Blue Dog Democrats -- independents who don't have red genes or blue genes. Both Fox and MSNBC televised Sen. Arlen Specter's raucous town hall meeting live. It was full of confrontation and protest. There were boos when Specter reaffirmed his president's Americanness.

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One problem may be that Glenn Beck fans are adopting these types of arguments against health care reform:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RELWULoyIn0[/youtube]