Aravosis: Right-wing now selling "You Lie!" bumper stickers
The right wing is rallying around Joe "You Lie!" Wilson as a hero, and even Wilson himself is now backtracking on his apology. And now they're selling bumper stickers. (I'm not going to link.)Think Progress: When Cantor mentions Obama, GOP rally interrupts with howls of ‘he’s a liar.’
Conrad and Baucus' appeasement of Wilson, which we reported on this morning, is the worst possible thing that Democrats could do. And even worse - if you're going to cave to someone, at least don't admit it publicly.
In honor of Baucus and Conrad, we're creating a new category of tags for our site - "bad dems."
Yesterday, Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, an anti-health reform group pushing for the privatization of Medicare, hosted a Republican rally with congressional leaders from the GOP caucus. House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) endorsed the sentiment of Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) outburst at the President, saying, “Don’t underestimate the amount of emotion that people are feeling…Americans are frustrated, they’re angry, and, most importantly, they’re scared to death.” Later, when Republican Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) began speaking about Obama, he was repeatedly interrupted by howls from the crowd that the President is “a liar.” “Liar, liar pants on fire,” they yelled. Watch it:
Think Progress: Michigan Chamber Of Commerce Embraces Glenn Beck, Invites Him To Be A Keynote Speaker
On his Fox News show this past Wednesday, right-wing extremist Glenn Beck claimed, “The uber-left is in business with big business.” But next Tuesday, Beck is keynoting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum in Michigan sponsored by several major corporations, including AT&T, Comcast, and Dow Corning.
Although Beck’s race-baiting and McCarthyism have led a massive advertiser boycott of his Fox News program, the largest business lobby in the United States has chosen to embrace him as the “dinner keynote speaker” for the 2009 “Future Forum” at Michigan State University’s Kellog Forum on September 15th:
Beck has called President Obama a “socialist,” a “Marxist,” and a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred of white people.” It may not come as a surprise that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with its right-wing agenda of blocking health care reform, clean energy legislation, and workers’ rights, is embracing Glenn Beck’s hate and fearmongering.
Tomorrow, Beck is broadcasting live on Fox News from Washington D.C. to promote the “9/12 Project,” Beck’s tearful mobilization against “socialism.” The 9/12 march is bankrolled by right wing organizations such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union, and GrassFire.org. These front groups are themselves backed by ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, HealthFirst, and other corporate titans who aim to maintain their windfall profits under the status quo.
The top sponsors of the Michigan event are Comcast, AT&T, and Consumers Energy. AT&T is on the board of the Chamber of Commerce but has pulled its ads from Glenn Beck’s show. Other Chamber members who have stopped advertising on Beck — but are giving him a platform in Michigan — include Aegon, CVS, State Farm Insurance, and UPS.
Sargent: House Dems Bracing For Huge Turnout At Glenn Beck/Tea Party Gathering
Looks like there’s serious concern among Dems about the big 9/12 rally that’s being heavily promoted by Glenn Beck, Fox, and the tea partiers for tomorrow.
A top House Dem leadership aide has emailed a memo to Dem aides on the Hill and outside liberal groups warning they should brace for a turnout of up to two million people, suggesting Dems worry that if enough conservatives descend on the Mall it will amount to a major PR victory for the right.
The aide, Doug Thornell, warned in the memo that the dust-up over Joe “you lie” Wilson has been invigorating conservatives. “It looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people,” Thornell wrote in the memo, which was forwarded by a source.
In another sign of concern, the memo painstakingly detailed a range of turnout predictions from the event’s organizers, such as this one from tea party leaders promising a crowd of up to 1,000,000.
Adding to Dem concern is the fact that Beck recently claimed a major victory in the ouster of former green jobs adviser Van Jones.
The House leadership memo predicting huge turnout could have been written in hopes that it would leak and inflate expectations for turnout, anticipating that it will fall far short. But Dems on the Hill insist they’re genuinely worried about what tomorrow will bring.
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Update: Thornell is actually an aide to Chris Van Hollen, not Pelosi. Aplogies for the error. He’s still a senior House leadership aide, however.
Update II: The full memo is right here.
D.C. liberals may be preparing for a significant teabagging onslaught at tomorrow's 9/12 rally, organized by Glenn Beck and FreedomWorks and other mainstays of the tea party retinue. But they're also probably engaging in a bit of sleight-of-hand.
"As you may know, FreedomWorks held a Capitol Hill demonstration yesterday, that turned into an impromptu rally for embattled Rep. Joe Wilson," reads an email from a House leadership aide to other members of Congress. "Now, based off of news reports and comments from leaders in the Tea Party movement, it looks like Saturday's event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people."
For reference, 2 million is just a hair under four times the total population of Washington, D.C., and approximately the number of people who showed up to the history-making inauguration of President Barack Obama. Sound like a bit of an exaggeration? It probably is.
A source at a major liberal organization in Washington says, "one of the things we decided to do was try to raise expectations for turnout," adding that he'd not received this particular House memo.
This is not to say that tomorrow's turnout will be small... but 2 million?!
We've seen this dynamic before. In fact, we saw it just a couple of years ago.Mitt Romney was known as a relatively moderate Republican governor of a reliably "blue" state, who could present himself, with a straight face, as a pragmatic, sane policymaker. Then Romney decided what he really wanted was to be president. Sane, moderate pragmatism wouldn't win over the Republican base, so that persona would have to be cast aside. It was painful to watch, and ultimately ineffective.
Here we go again. Tim Pawlenty was also known as a relatively moderate Republican governor of a reliably "blue" state. And like Romney, Pawlenty has decided that what he really wants is to be president. So, in keeping with the predictable model, Pawlenty has decided to go full-on crazy to impress the type of folks who vote in Republican presidential primaries.
Minnesota Republican Tim Pawlenty urged fellow governors on Thursday to more frequently assert state sovereignty over the federal government and suggested that the country may increasingly see states suing the federal government.
Asked by a caller about the option of asserting the Tenth Amendment as a tactic to reject a successful health care overhaul by President Barack Obama during a tele-town hall organized by the Republican Governors Association, Pawlenty said, "that's a possibility."
Speaking generally about the tenth amendment, Pawlenty said the country has not had "a proper federalism debate since Ronald Reagan raised the issue in the 1980s."
"You're starting to see more governors, me and governor [Rick] Perry from Texas, speaking out on this and asserting our tenth amendment rights," Pawlenty said on a call listened to by more than 12,000 people.
Pawlenty's pandering comes just a week after he criticized President Obama's speech encouraging kids to do well in school. The governor argued, out loud, that the White House might have been trying to compile a list of children "for the purpose of a mailing list." It's likely he knew this was moronic, but Pawlenty has some Tea Baggers to impress, and some right-wing ground to make up.
But this ridiculous "Tenther" rhetoric is even more radical. As Ian Millhiser recently explained, "[C]nservatives are increasingly enraptured with tentherism, which claims that landmark federal programs such as Medicare, Social Security, the VA health system and the G.I. Bill are violations of the 10th Amendment -- and many leading conservative officials are determined to impose the tentherism on the country. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) is a tenther, as are Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)."
Tim Pawlenty probably realizes this is insane, but his ambitions have overridden his judgment.
Romney-itis, in other words, has claimed another victim. Regrettably, there is no cure.
Update: Dave Weigel has the full transcript of Pawlenty's comments.
C&L: Countdown: Special Comment About the Shout of "You Lie"
By Heather Thursday Sep 10, 2009 7:45pm
Keith lets Rep. "Wrong-Way" Wilson have it in this Special Comment.
And finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the shout of "You Lie" during the presidential address to the joint session of Congress last night on the matter of health care reform.
The 43rd president of the United States lied the nation into the war, lied 4,343 of his fellow citizens to death in that war, lied about upholding the constitution, and lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction.
He lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda before 9/11 and he lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.
He lied about getting Bin Laden, and he lied about not getting Bin Laden.
He lied about nation-building in Iraq, lied about the appearance of new buildings **in** the nation **of** Iraq, and lied about embassy buildings in nations like Iraq.
He lied about trailers with mobile weapons labs in them, and he lied about trailers with Cuban prostitutes in them.
He and his administration lied -- by the counting of one non-profit group -- 532 times about links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq. Only 28 of those were by that President, but he made up for that by lying 231 times about W-M-D.
And yet not once did an elected Democratic official shout out during one of George W. Bush's speeches and call him a "liar."
Even when the president was George W. Bush, even when he was assailed from sidelines like mine, even when the lies came down so thick the nation needed a hat... he was still the President and if he didn't earn any respect, the office he held demanded respect.
...
Again, whether it be 2 million or 2 thousand, I am sooo looking forward to the highlight of the core Republican base!
Haha. If there is really two million people, unless they’ve done some serious coordination with the city for resources, porta potties, food/drink, police presence, they are going to have a near disaster. For the inauguration, they had to bring in police forces from neighboring cities/states to control the crowds.