I’ve been hearing this around the comments here and elsewhere all day. One of Josh Marshall’s readers describes it quite well:
I’m surprised that it’s your Republican pal that has to make this point: The precedent on the anti-health care protests isn’t Bush’s Social Security town hall meetings. The real precedent is the “Brooks Brothers riot” during the 2000 recount. The point is to create disorder, but get the media to cast blame on the underlying issue and NOT the protesters.
That’s what happened during Florida: The “blame” was on the “chaos” created by the “unfair” counting methods brought on by Al Gore’s call for “selective” counting. No blame was focused on the young GOP activists upsetting the process.
I’d like to try to do a little research on how the Brooks Brothers riot was treated at the time by the media. I do remember a WaPo columnist or reporter showing a picture and having readers ID the Brooks Brothers rioters — they all turned out to be Republican operatives — but other than that, I don’t remember much. Was it largely portrayed as the sham that it was? I’m guessing not.
Richard Bottoms
Not until too late. Please ensure Nancy Pelosi’s office is aware of this bullshit and has passed on the info to every Democrat in congress.
Similarly, every single progressive going on talking head shows should not fail to mention this.
r.b.
Rosali
DougJ,
Jon Stewart is getting started on his mockery.
Danton
I’ve actually been concerned that Orly Taitz has been positioned by GOP people like Rove to distract the left from vigilance over the intensifying health care debate.
Call me paranoid.
Crusty Dem
So these disruptions are being directed by a group led by former Rep Richard Armey (R-TX). Do these Teabaggers realize that they have become, quite literally, Dick Armey’s Dick Army?
Ash
@Rosali: I was just going to mention that Jon has delved right into the mockery DougJ spoke of. But…..he’s Jon Stewart. And that was expected.
@Danton: Ehrm, yeah, that definitely sounds paranoid.
Sentient Puddle
$20 says that if you flip the scenario and it was Democrats creating the chaos, the predominant coverage would be on the mischievous Democrats, not on the chaos.
alphie
The stripper in the Duke rape case has written a book
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Dance-Grace-Crystal-Mangum/dp/0981783708
People who are buying it also buy books by Jonah Goldberg
JK
Interesting articles on the Brooks Brothers Riot
Miami’s rent-a-riot
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/28/miami/index.html
Bush’s Conspiracy to Riot
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/080502a.html
Mob Scene In Miami
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/1204/cover_riot.html
Comrade Luke
Why in the world would Pelosi have to be made aware of this by us? Is she that clueless?
We’re not hearing much from the Dems for the simple reason that they’re all in this together.
Rosali
FL voter here. It was covered by the local press at the time as a mob that shut down the count. Dems were pissed. We was robbed.
It was described as a rent-a-riot by Nov 28, 2000.
Rosali
@JK: I linked to the same article you did. The google monkeys are working hard tonight.
Martin
My recollection of the 2000 recount was that Florida was going through what all recounts go through – making the best sense of out ballots that were somewhat senseless in how they were cast. It’s ugly stuff, but it happens *everywhere*.
The goal of the Brooks Brothers riot was to kick the door open to show how ugly it is and to make it impossible for the recount to happen properly. The recount was distilled down to this image with the goal to change the venue to any place that was more in their favor. With Jeb as governor and Harris so securely in the GOP’s pocket, all they had to do was take it out of the hands of the county and sully the process that was previously in place – which they effectively did.
Granted, we created this problem ourselves. By not having an instant count/recount process in an electoral vote situation we created a scenario where the entire national race could come down to one state, or one district. Once it’s clear that the national stakes fall on such a small region, the pressure on that region simply gets out of hand. That should never happen in a well designed process.
Incertus
My recollection is that it was outed as a Republican op too late to make a difference, but the rehashing of it since then makes it feel a bit like everyone knew it at the time.
Richard Bottoms
The “there’s no difference between the two parties” bullshit.
Eight years of Bush and the GOP. How’d that work out for you?
JK
@Rosali: Agreed.
Unfortunately, I think Brooks Brothers 2 has a much greater potential for violence.
JK
I wish the Secret Service had contact information for this lunatic from a McCain/Palin rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG0ywlWlyUM
Comrade Luke
@Richard Bottoms:
Bush sucked. It was awful.
And right now we’re treading water and the Republicans are somehow winning the messaging battle.
So I guess that’s an “improvement”.
JK
A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s “Joker” character from “The Dark Knight” is creating a stir on the streets of Los Angeles where the image began appearing over the weekend.
The Obama-Joker poster shows President Obama with white face paint, dark eye shadow and smudged red lipstick and also has the word “socialism” printed in bold, dark letters under the image of his face.
h/t Obama ‘Joker’ Poster Causing a Stir in L.A.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-obama-posters,0,940643.story
GregB
I am getting that sinking feeling in my stomach.
The same one I had when Bush was handed to 2000 election.
The same one I had when I watched the nation eating up the stories about the imminent threat posed by Iraq.
The same one I fel when I watched the nation duped into believing that the Vietnam veteran was the coward and the Texas Air National Guard guy was the war hero.
-G
Rosali
@Incertus: My recollection from the time was average voters were okay with the recount going forward and/or willing to let it play out in the courts. We wanted finality but were willing to wait through the process.
It was widely understood that those who went to the Miami-Dade recount site with pitchforks and raised fists were GOP partisan operatives who were determined to stop the recount because they believed that it would show Dade voters favoring Gore.
Anne Laurie
Martin is absolutely on the button. The ReThugs (and I believe that’s when this nick first hit) succeeded in convincing the Media Village Idiots that they’d accept no outcome that wasn’t a Bush “victory”. The best we could get from the EvenTheLiberal less-right-wing outlets was some variation on “Bush and Gore are practically identical anyways, so why not give those poor outvoted Republicans what they want, since it means so much to them (and besides Gore is kinda boring and Clinton got a blowjob)?” Even before the Poppy-tainted branch of the Supremes decided, whattheheck, they had tenure anyways, the real precedent had been established that the incoming Republican administration could do whatever the fvck they felt like “popular will” and “rule of law” be damned.
I’d been vocally suspicious of the Republican Party’s subtle and not-so-subtle election-rigging since the 1988 “landslide”, and been condemned as a conspiracy theorist in response. After the truth of the Brooks Brothers Riot started to emerge, one of my friends called to apologize — he still thought I was nuts to think Atwater could have successfully manipulated the 1988 totals, but he no longer believed that “nobody who’d be willing to do something so dishonest could rise to the top echelons of a modern national party.”
A century from now, the Brooks Brothers Riot is going to be in the history books as one of those political turning points, like Dred Scott or the Reconstruction debacle, where the American ruling class had a clear choice between the right choice and the expedient choice… and damn near destroyed our country as a result.
williamc
The media is destroying healthcare reform because they know that the “Republicans Rising” Storyline is good for ratings. This whole Olbermann/BillO truce story should serve as a reminder to all of us that we are through the looking glass right now with the media: the corporate masters have given up pretending that there is a wall between news interests and corporate interests, and are using their platforms to fight against all of us and we need to push back.
Start personally: familiarize yourself with the Tri-committee Bill from the House and talk to your friends and family about the health care reform contained in it (and trust me, after dealing with my black grandma asking me if Obama really wants to kill senoirs, you are going to need to talk to the old ones first).
Next, write letters to the editor of your local paper with the details of the astroturfing of the town hall meetings if they run stories about the disruptions.
Write and call your local and national television newsrooms to complain if something happens like what happened tonight on CBS: having Republican strategists, the leaders of the astroturf groups, and a political reporter on to talk about the circle-jerk to rip us off that they are engaged in.
We have to be aware of the stakes in this: the media is pulling for the Republicans to mount a comeback because conflict sells, and the only way the ‘pubs can claw their way back is if they start defeating Obama’s agenda with their noise machine and the public smells WIN in them, and it seems that the mainstream media is trying to breathe WIN into the Republican zombie corpse. You would think that Americans would understand that these idiots drove us into a ditch and almost collapsed our civilization over the past 10 years, but we all know that stupid is as stupid does and we are swimming in a sea of stupid in this country.
The best way to deal with all of it though is ridicule. Everyone hates being laughed at (look at how Oily Taints reacted to Shuster and Co. laughing at her this afternoon), so take the laughing to them. Fighting back against crazy people only confirms their fight instinct. It’s really hard to be anything but redfaced when people are laughing at your lunacy. And if they react with violence, they go to jail, you were only laughing…
ninerdave
One of the (probably minor) things you can do.
Monitor the tea party list of targets:
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/TownHalls.aspx
point ’em to the TPM article showing the roots of this “protest”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/inside-the-tea-partiers-anti-health-care-organizing-campaign.php?ref=fpa
and call or write to warn your local congresscritter if they are in their crosshairs. While, I’m in Barbara Lee’s district, I’m about a half a mile from Pete Stark’s territory. Here’s what I wrote him:
asiangrrlMN
Wow. I am absolutely shattered by all this nonsense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the Dems control all three fucking branches of the federal government?
How disappointing (to quote Snape).
LosGatosCAa
I think you need to go back fuehrther to the brown shirts in the 1930s.
Republicans have no respect for anything but money and power which helps get more money. They are just fascists.
Party before country, money above all.
JK
OT
Orly Taitz Melts Down On MSNBC, Blames MSM “Brownshirts”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/orly-taitz-melts-down-on_n_250441.html
r€nato
Wow, I thought this was patently obvious the first I heard of the GOP ratfucking of the health care town halls.
Comrade Luke
@williamc:
The media was pulling for the Republicans when they were the majority, so I can’t agree with you that they’re now pulling for a comeback by Republicans because conflict sells.
The Republicans are better at manipulating the media establishment, and until that changes the media will be in their pocket. Unfortunately the Dems, particularly in Congress as opposed to the White House, can’t seem to get out of the way of their own two feet.
Until we get rid of the Reids and Pelosis and replace them with progressives who are willing and able to fight, the Republicans and Blue Dogs will rule the day.
I just don’t know if that will ever happen.
Comrade Luke
@asiangrrlMN:
EXACTLY
r€nato
Indeed, this is true. It was not known as the “Brooks Brothers riot” until much later… when the outcome was decided.
once again, I flash back to that weaselly fuck Ahmad Chalabi during an interview on Frontline:
Nellcote
@williamc:
>This whole Olbermann/BillO truce story should serve as a reminder to all of us that we are through the looking glass right now with the media
Except that the story was a lie.
Martin
They do, and legislation will pass all the same.
The media circus doesn’t always align with the actual attitudes of the public. I think the process usually still works when one of the three legs is off the floor – government/public/media. Right now government and the public are on the same page, and they’ll prevail, even if the media is out in the weeds a bit.
This isn’t like 2000 or the Clinton impeachment when the public were effectively innocent bystanders. Regardless of the outcome in 2000, Bush wasn’t far from the majority even if he didn’t win it, and we still wound up with a President (no President was the more immediate catastrophe to the public at the time.) The current debates are totally different. Health care, the economy, and such directly affect the public and is transcending ideology in quite a few cases. The real wingnuts will never yield, but when the guy down the street who casually voted for McCain loses his health insurance, there’s really nothing the media can say to sway his opinion in the debate.
The legislation will pass.
Comrade Luke
I have no doubt that something will pass. I just have little faith that it will be any good, or address the real problem in any meaningful way.
Whatever happens, this will be how the Obama administration will be defined. If it’s good he’ll get re-elected. If not, I’m guessing enough Dems will stay home that he’ll get booted.
r€nato
I am pretty sure it was not at all widely understood that these were GOP operatives until much, much later. Slowly the truth got out and even then it sort of had the whiff of a conspiracy theory until people (who wanted to know the truth) finally realized this was a put-up job.
And the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board of that time should hang their heads in shame forever, that they cravenly gave in to this fake mob.
Quackosaur
pattonbt
@Comrade Luke:
I dont think that its the MSM pulls for the R’s, I just think the R’s give the media what it wants – stories. Policy is boring, and unfortunately the D’s (mostly) care about policy and governing. What fun is that? Thats not for TV I’ll tell ya!
Seriously, modern TV media is designed for a party like the R’s where its form over substance. The media does not care for truth it cares for ratings. R’s in or out of power are good for ratings. D’s? Not so much.
And I would still bet 70% of the media would have a liberal / D bias personally, but they sleep well at night by saying ‘well we have to look at both sides and give both sides equal air’. They do not care that one side lies, its the other side so we have to air it. And they sleep well on their down pillows filled with money.
pattonbt
@Comrade Luke:
I still believe Obama’s path to re-election is paved with gold. Theres just too many factors aligned against the R’s right now. The main one being there is no one who doesnt share the taint of Bush. They have no bench to go to.
Of course, if things suck hard enough and Obama does poorly, you never know.
But I will say this, The D’s should be very mindful how heavily their future is invested in Obama. If Obama fails, fails to the level that he loses in 2012, it will be one of the biggest setbacks for the D party ever.
For the R’s to be able to overcome their current hole means the D’s will basically have to self destruct in ways unimaginable. Again, its possible, but not very probable.
KCinDC
Pattonbt, people in the media may be socially liberal, but they’re not exactly worried that they personal won’t be able to maintain whatever personal relationships they like and obtain abortions if they need them. I’d also buy that they’re also not generally religious, but the same is true of much of the upper levels of the Republican Party.
On economic issues, on the other hand, the people you see in the media are conservative, and that what drives their leanings. They are much wealthier than the average American, and they have no intention of paying higher taxes. They also want to support the party that’s better for the megacorporations that pay their salaries.
pattonbt
@KCinDC:
Probably true. In the end, it always comes down to money. My sister-in-laws sister and husband are both highly educated doctors. Wonderful people. Beautiful family. Open minded on everything. I always loved them like my own family. Yet, they both voted R this time around. When they told me I was shocked. Before being able to shut my mouth I asked “how could any person with a heart or conscience vote for them?”. Their answer “money”. Sure changed my opinion of them. I honestly have a hard time talking to them anymore knowing that.
I always fall back on a quote of my dads (paraphrase) “Im proud to pay taxes, it means Ive done well and can contribute”. Ive tried to live that way myself.
MattR
@pattonbt: My greatest hope is that if health care reform ultimately fails or is watered down to meaninglessness the blame will properly fall on the appropriate Senators and Representitives who caused the failure, especially the Democratic ones who had the power to enact change all on their own if they stuck together but failed to do so. Maybe we can use our electoral powers in 2010 to scare people into actually doing what the people want. And at that point, I hope and expect our President to step up and lead the way.
pattonbt
@MattR:
Agreed. What I dont understand is how the R’s see this as a electoral strategy win. Sure reform fail may give Obama a black eye, but who is the middle going to turn to? The R’s? Please. Obama may be made to look imperfect and vulnerable, but no one is forgetting 2001 through 2008 anytime soon. Bush / Cheney and the R’s are going to be in the toilet by default for a long way to go.
The only effective strategy they have right now is self imposed STFU. But they just cant help themselves. People will see they still take glee in the daily battle and pissing around when time are tough. That doesnt sell.
As for the D’s that dont stand up? I’d love to believe they’d suffer, but they probably wont. I just dont think right now there will be any real political consequence for anyone if healthcare reform fails.
Martin
You’re thinking national when none of the current party leaders are viable nationally. They’re all securing their own re-election and some kind of reliable voting block – the south. From that perspective, I think they’re holding up alright.
And personally, I think the GOP has written off 2012. They’re salting the land, trying to drive the Dems approvals to the single digits that they currently enjoy and hoping for a level playing field in 2016.
DBrown
@r€nato: Yes they should because where were the fucking State Police to put these fuckers down and arrest these assholes? If anyone else had attacked a State Office you can be damn sure that they would be in jail before you could say bush is a shit eating mass murdering animal … .
neil
My recollection in 2000 was that the MSM portrayed the Yuppie Riot in Florida as a peculiar sort of populist anger side-show – and then dropped the story like a hot potato and hushed it up once it was demonstrated that the Brooks Brothers rioters were all Republican operatives. There were no calls for investigations, certainly. (Conspiracy anyone?) No charges of “disorderly conduct” – maybe you need Cambridge police to do that.
If that kind of thing had happened in some Third World backwater, the media in the USA would sniff in distaste and call the election into question. But not here.
The MSM were deliberately asleep at the switch – and they normally are when it comes to Republicans. Imagine, if you will, what the media reaction would be if it were a bunch of lefties shouting down conservative politicians over the healthcare “debate”. Katie Couric and Brian Williams would be beside themselves and reaching for the smelling salts over such an affront to civil discourse.
When right-wingers do it, it’s “populist anger” from “real Americans” – even if these “real Americans” have to be bused in from outside the district. You will not see real reporting on this issue unless the blogosphere shames them into it.
Rosali
Here’s a CNN transcript of a broadcast report right after the Brooks Brothers riot:
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Mandatory or not, Natalie, as we know, at just a few minutes ago, the canvassing board in Miami-Dade county elected not to go ahead with its hand recount, saying it was just physically impossible to get through all of that before the deadline set by the Florida supreme court.
Let’s turn now once again to Frank Buckley who was there during that vote, who was there during a near-riot, as it’s been described, earlier in the day, by Republican observers, and who is now just outside the room where the canvassing board members are still explaining why they voted the way they did.
Frank, what’s happening?
Rosali
Time Magazinea week later:
Strayer was one of hundreds of paid G.O.P. crusaders who descended on South Florida last Wednesday to protest the state’s recounts…
Yet the way the Republicans went after it, by intimidating the three-member board or by providing the excuse it was looking for, gave Americans the first TV view of strong-arm tactics in what was supposed to be a showcase of democracy in action.…
But the G.O.P.’s march turned into a mob. The screaming, the pounding on doors and the alleged physical assaults on Democrats suddenly made a bemused public queasy. “I’m all for anyone’s right to protest,” says Miami-Dade Democratic chairman Joe Geller, who had to have a police escort. “These were Brownshirt tactics.”
brantl
“Wow. I am absolutely shattered by all this nonsense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the Dems control all three fucking branches of the federal government?”
No, supposedly they control 2, and with all of the blue dogs, not even that.
What needs to happen at all of these health care town halls is this: since the Republicans are treating them as shout down events, Democratic protestors need to go, and shout louder and longer for the public option. And out-volume, out-last these assholes. And make sure that there are plenty of cops around to arrest the Republicans when they start the fights.
We need to answer this just as strongly from the other side.
Suggested posters:
“Don’t want them to mess with your medicare? Medicare is government health care for old people!”
“No government health care? Sure, social security SUCKED for your grandparents, didn’t it?”
“Every advanced country in the world has universal health care, EXCEPT THE US!”
“CUBA has a better survival rate on breast cancer than the UNITED STATES! Why? UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.”
“REDISTRIBUTE THE WEALTH? NO, REDISTRIBUTE THE HEALTH!”
matoko_chan
lawls, Orly Taitz is a MOSSAD operative, dontcha know?
I think Obama has the insurance companies by the short hairs and he is reframing the debate to demonize the cruel greedy bastards.
Let’s see the teabaggers defend the insurance company fatcats and wideboiz when they get forced to show their republican colors.
liberal
@Martin:
LOL! In a well-designed process, ballots would not be designed at the county level. No butterfly ballot, no Bush 43.