WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes once again hailed the howling mob that's been trying to shut down Dem listening sessions. Indeed, while yesterday Sykes tried to distance himself from people who were yelling, today (unless The Brawler missed it) Sykes made no concession to civility. Indeed, Sykes suggested to his benighted listeners that they should not listen to moderate Republicans who suggest that the howling mob showing up at Dem listening sessions makes them look bad.
Funny thing is, the Brawler remembers how disheartened Charlie was when an infinitesmal number of the million people attending Obama's inauguration booed Bush. "You stay classy, libs," Charlie blubbered.
From the Brawler's posting on the outrage:
But the thing that cracked up the Brawler the most would be Sykes' claim that conservatives will "treat Barack Obama with a lot more class ... than you folks ever treated George Bush." Yes, that would be the same Charlie Sykes who called Obama, on at least two occasions, a "sniveling, snot-nosed community organizer."
Or who organized a "pro-troop" rally that doubled as a hate fest aimed at war opponents? that Who regularly demonizes the people of the "central city" (is that a euphemism) as moochers, etc. And thats' just for starters.
Responding to a caller who griped that Republicans play by Marquess of Queensbury rules while Dems fight dirty, Sykes lamented "I just don't want to be them." Without laughing.
No, Charlie would rather his side up the game with death threats.
Meanwhile, on inauguration day Patrick McIlheran was shocked -- shocked -- that people viewing the proceedings at Uihlein Hall would boo Dick Cheney, appropriately one of the most hated men in America.
Good heavens. It’s a guy in a wheelchair, for starters. And since when do vice presidents do their own moving, but that got no empathy: It was Darth Cheney on screen, so reflex took over and a crowd of Milwaukeeans engaged in a fairly decent act of civic joy decided to give their worst instincts one more outing. Until the end, the Bush-deranged couldn’t resist one more chance to slip in a little bile.
Of course, the howling mob intimidating senior citizens at listening sessions are just expressing a justified anger -- so that's cool.
What the memo on how to make a fuss offers town-hall attendees is instruction in how not to be sheeple, how to make noise (a hitherto alien concept for most conservatives), how to stand up to the professionally organized pressure for nationalized health care from the left, how to find exactly where in the 1,000-plus-page bill the ghastly stuff you’ve been hearing about.
What a memo cannot do is command people to be outraged. If it could, we’d have seen 60-year-old guys in I’m-an-accountant clothes shouting questions at congressmen about dozens of other things prior to this. There are lots of things that conservative interests have wanted the public to be upset about; the public who agree with the conservative interests have generally found that mowing the lawn or taking scrapbooking classes at community rec was a more pressing priority. Not now. Such a switch is not manufactured, it is simply, for a change, organized.
Obviously birther apologist McIlheran understates the ability of the right to manufacture outrage among its sheeple constituency ("did you hear Obama wants to off granny?"). And seriously, where do conservatives get this idea they don't show up at rallies, a standard albeit false talking point? As the Brawler pointed out at the time of the original surge of teabagging:
"Conservatives don't do protests." That is, of course, not true. Conservatives do protest all the time. Particularly if they're sponsored by corporations or right-wing interest groups. Off the top of my head, I can think of massive anti-immigration rallies, the AFP's 2007 FAIL rally in Madison last year, pro-Iraq War rallies (that denounced anti-war protesters -- who, btw,were fucking right -- as being anti-American), anti-Dixie Chicks rallies sponsored by ClearChannel affiliates, not to mention anti-abortion rights marches in DC or protests elsewhere.
But I guess it's good enough work for a right-wing guy.
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