St. Louis Pushes Back describes the bullying tactics the leaders of the St. Louis Tea Party are using to press their unsubstantiated case against two SEIU members. Hennessy, Loesch, and Bearden want the prosecutor to press a hate crime because they claim the two men beat up a black man outside Russ Carnahan’s town hall last August. Not only does the evidence not support the claim that the SEIU members beat up Kenneth Gladney, but the supposed “hate crime” perpetrators are black themselves.
Like I keep saying, the term Tea Party has less to do with Boston than it has to do with Alice and rabbit holes.
Teabaggers made the most of the Carnahan and McCaskill town halls these last two weeks, doing what they do best: bloviating. I agree with Dick Durbin that Democrats shouldn’t give them a stage for their theatrics. Claire thought democracy had its day at her event in Hillsboro? Nah. All that happened was that she proved her skill at handling unruly children.
Now that there are no town halls where the baggers can throw tantrums, they’re suffering some minor setbacks. To wit:
[Dana Loesch] made fun of the ACORN petition drive last Friday for its lack of attendance. Hey, Dana? Attendance wasn’t the goal. Signatures on petitions asking for a public option was the goal, and ACORN got 300 of them–which is more than the number of people y’all got, even on a Saturday, for your anti-SEIU protest. The very fact that your provocateurs couldn’t locate a crowd to harass means that, as ACORN organizer Glenn Burleigh said, “our plan pretty much worked like anti-teabagger magic.”
Meanwhile, teabagger attempts to beat a dead horse by protesting about Kenneth Gladney’s faux beating was worse than a bust: first, because, except for some media people, attendance was “damn near nil“–and attendance numbers are kinda the point at events like this. But maybe the absence of supporters was a blessing. Best if they’re not on hand to witness the way the NAACP put the organizer in his place:
But the effort was cut short when the head of the civil rights group showed up at the news conference and said that no one had asked the NAACP to investigate the claims.
“The St. Louis branch of the NAACP will and does accept and investigate all written complaints filed with us, regardless of the complainant’s ideology,” said Claude Brown Sr., president of the St. Louis City NAACP. “We regret that a group has decided to protest outside our office before contacting us or filing such a complaint.”
Oops.
The “rally” was organized by a nine month old group of conservative blacks called Move-On-Up.org, headed by Chris Arps. Blog Saint Louis observes that:
The Saint Louis NAACP has long had a history of disorganization and organizational strife. It also just outmanuevered Chris Arps of Move-On Up and Missouri Political News Service. You almost have to try and be that incompetent. Perhaps it’s just a natural talent for Arps.
Bill Hennessy, hater of frivolous lawsuits, nevertheless urges his followers to file them against the two companies that withdrew their ads from Glenn Beck for his comment about Obama being a racist:
I hope no one reading this get into an accident. But if you do have an accident, and if the other party is a Geico or Progressive customer, sue like crazy. Sue for the maximum coverage their insurance allows. You won’t be hurting the other driver-you’ll be hurting Geico. I can’t stand ambulance chaser law suits, but Geico and Progressive need to be financially destroyed.
[Boldface Hennessy’s]
Ooh. Geico must be quaking.
But how are Hennessy henchmen going to file frivolous lawsuits against the other eight companies–Allergan, Ally Bank, Best Buy, Broadview Security, CVS, Re-Bath, Travelocity, and Wal-Mart–that have now withdrawn their ads at Glenn Beck? Will Hennessy urge them to sue Best Buy if they don’t like a DVD they buy there?
Ah. You see I didn’t understand why teabaggers felt justified in disrupting town halls. But Dana Loesch explained that Congress has forced them into a corner by not allowing Republicans any input into the health insurance reform process.
“Congress set the tone for this, folks. They are the ones that decided to bar discourse on this health care legislation. They are the ones who decided to shut out debate in the House of Representatives. First time in the history of the country (inaudible) that a party has been shut out of the House of Representatives from amending any legislation. (inaudible) That is why people are angry!”
I should say so! It’s unconscionable for Democrats to prevent Republicans from offering amendments. Please excuse my confusion, though, because admittedly I don’t read right wing blogs often, so I must have missed something. But when I tried to verify Loesch’s claim, the first site I came across, a Republican site, listed five amendments that House Republicans offered in July to the health care legislation. True, they were all defeated, but that tends to happen to minority parties. Ask Democrats who were in Congress four years ago.
And I seem to remember something about efforts in the Senate to include Republicans in the decision making process. Wait, it’s coming back to me:
Senate Democrats have already grown frustrated with the cloud of secrecy surrounding Baucus’ [Finance Committee] negotiations. Republicans receive regular briefings on the discussions, but Democrats have been largely left out in the cold ….
Oh, and yeah, wait, wait, wait. I remember. Republicans asked Senator Dodd for a CBO estimate of the cost of health insurance reform without factoring in a public option or employer contributions. Of course, that figure was hugely inflated because it left out two of the biggest cost control mechanisms, but the Republicans very publicly sandbagged Dodd with the study, thereby punishing him for doing them a favor.
Well, whatever. I’m sure Dana Loesch wouldn’t claim to be such a victim without good cause. And besides, Republicans have other reasons to be angry. Loesch lays out why the teabaggers have to disrupt meetings:
“They’re tired of calling their representative and ‘leaving a message.’ They’re tired of going to their representative’s website and pouring their hearts into an e-mail form, only, several days later, to get a form canned response back.”
I’m shocked. I had no idea they were being subjected to such indignities. Because when I call my rep, they put me right through to him. Of course, I live in a Democratic rep’s district. Those of you who live in Akin’s or Blunt’s or Graves’ districts might not get through quite so promptly.
Anyway, you can see what listening to the other side can accomplish. It can work wonders. In fact, let me offer heartfelt apologies to my brethren on the other side of the aisle for implying that they are spoiled loudmouths who think they should always get their way. Loesch said in yesterday’s video “We’re here to make friends.” Back at you, sister. Thanks for the explanation.
