“The Democratic party is panicking, lashing out like a cornered animal, all because its effort to take over the health-care industry is coming apart like so much wet toilet paper.” So writes Jonah Goldberg, in his latest column at NRO. As proof positive of how desperate the Dems are becoming in their panic to discredit protesters at town-hall rallies as RNC “plants,” Jonah calls readers’ attention to the antics of the frightening-looking specimen pictured at the left.
Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town-hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “AstroTurf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”
Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.
All valid points, but there is a larger issue here that needs to be addressed. It is the Speaker herself. Precious little column space appears to be devoted to Princess Pelosi. Such would not be the case if—prepare to shudder—she were one of ours. Think of it: Nancy Pelosi, conservative.
Imagine the fun Tina Fey could have, dressing up in clown makeup so she could look just like Nancy P. Imagine the laughs the SNL crew could have, simulating a State of the Union address, with Fey-as-Pelosi secreted in a jack-in-the-box behind the President, springing up like a loon every time he finished a sentence.
Imagine the material this would provide liberal bloggers, who would remind us on a daily basis that this dimwit, who can scarcely form a cogent English sentence, is two heartbeats away from becoming leader of the free world.
Think of the grist it would provide Palin-obsessed “comedians” like David Letterman. “Nancy Pelosi,” he could monologize, “recently had a complete physical, including an EEG, which measures brain activity. This was the first time in history, doctors declared afterwords, that a patient had failed the test.” (I know, the joke is not terribly funny, but neither are Letterman’s.)
UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that a writer at Puffington Host provides some visual evidence that some protesters have indeed brought signs bearing swastikas to town-hall demonstrations. I have thus redacted the portion of this post (consisting of material quoted from Jonah Goldberg) devoted to the subject of swastikas. I would at the same time say in Jonah’s defense and to Pelosi’s further detriment that her argument that swastikas prove that the protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus is preposterous and an indication of her utter stupidity. Even if the signs were not obviously homemade, as a glimpse of one here strongly suggests, Pelosi’s “logic” (if it can so be called) boggles the mind. I stand behind the remainder of the post and affirm the view that Pelosi is one of the dumbest creatures ever to roam the surface of the earth and that if she were conservative that view would be held as gospel among liberals.
Comments 19
It can’t be repeated often enough that the core of Obama’s message was and still is (on his website) for his faithful to get out and be active at town halls, etc. It is apparently all in a democracy’s work for Obamaniacs to flood the zone at a meeting; but if their parents decide to participate in their turn Pelosi and our Dear Leader can only see fascism rearing it’s ugly head.
And that doesn’t even get to the outright vandals, organized and trained by thinly disguised fellow travelers of the likes of Rahm Emanuel and Al Gore, who shout down speakers when they’re not standing outside polling places and openly menacing voters with billy clubs.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/rush-limbaugh-compares-new-health-care-logo-to-nazi-swastika.html
August 7th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Becoming a conservative would only marginally increase her imbecility, but it would certainly be a welcome experiment.
(Nothing in the above should be taken as suggestive of flatwormish presumption.)
August 7th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Um, that picture shows a swastika with a circle around it and a red slash through it. So that’s pro-Nazi? Does that mean those signs with a cigarette with the red circle and slash are pro smoking? Cool. And to think I keep going outside to smoke.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I would say when talking about Goldberg that he would say that bringing swastikas is a sure indication that the protesters approve Obamacare.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Take a look at James Taranto’s Best of the Web column today–he dispenses with Pelosi’s claim very effectively
August 7th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Bruce, no, it’s not pro-Nazi obviously, but that fact doesn’t contradict Pelosi’s claim.
Adam, I read Taranto’s column (thanks for pointing it out), but I disagree. Normally, I think he’s pretty effective in framing arguments, but here he was either being coy or just failed to be convincing, in my view.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
BTW, Bruce, I hope that’s cigars you’re going outside to smoke. (Not that they’re great for you, but they’re better than cigarettes and MUCH yummier.)
August 7th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I thought Taranto made his three points very well, that
1. the protestors are anti-Nazi, consider Obamacare Nazi-like, and therefore oppose it;
2. comparing American political phenomena to the Nazis is politically ineffective and morally obtuse; and
3. the Bushitler thing carried on by the left should not be imitated by the right.
People naturally want to use shorthand for the statist, controlling aspects of the proposed health care takeovers, but I agree with Taranto that there’s no getting around the need to explain, explain, explain what’s wrong with the proposals.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I don’t know why we’re wasting time with swastikas, when the obvious collection of symbols is the hammer, sickle, and raised fist.
Hitler got himself in charge of a friskier and more militarily capable polity — but Stalin was Heap Chief Collectivist for the ages. Not even Mao, who got off some great one-liners, could mount the stage with him. Sure, Mao killed more people. But Stalin built bigger dams, and had more useful-idiot admirers in the West.
Let’s defuse this whole finicking thing with not bringing up brown-shirts and swastikas, and just call the SEIU thugs beating up honest citizens at political gatherings what they are: Bolsheviks. (The Leninist tactics are unfolding before our eyes; Stalinism is waiting in the sac, parasitic and preparing to gobble up the Leninists when its wings emerge.)
Of course we should explain exactly what is wrong with the Obamacare plan. Most of the time there is little point in weighing the debate down with freighted allusions. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit around, silent, and wait for other people who don’t know any history or have any judgment to find out, by living through (or perishing in) the lesson, that all collectivism springs from the same root, and that no collectivism admits in its execution any brake on its excesses. Someone has to point it out. It’s true.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Taranto criticizes the Nazi imagery, however deployed, and rightly so–but more importantly he demolishes Pelosi’s claim, which was not simply that there were swastikas, but (implicitly) that those swastikas proved a) that those opposing Obama are neo-Nazis and, b) that these protests are “astroturfing.” The first claim is easily disproven by pointing out that they are associating the one they are against (Obama), however clumsily and inappropriately, with Nazism; the second claim is ludicrous, because no professional political organizer would ever use swastikas, either in the way the protesters did or (much less) in the way Pelosi implies. In other words, there is much to argue about here, but Pelosi’s cluelessness, desperation and stupidity is indisputable.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Someone needs to think about adjusting Nancy’s med levels.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
The Pelousy remedy just might be Meg Whitman, either as Blab Boxer’s replacement or the new Governator.
We need more wise women running and winning as Republicans.
Pelousy, 0bie, et all are so cocky these days, do they know something we do not know?
Do they think they have future elections so well fixed, as in Venezuela, that they can simply hector their critics, and forever get away with it?
btw, three cheers for Colin for this here beaut of a gravitar!!!
hurrah
hurrah
hurrah
August 7th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Apparently, the DNC sent out one of their screeds accusing the GOP of being Nazi-like, while te Republican Jewish Congressional Caucus, a/k/a Eric Cantor, was at the Western Wall.
These people could mess up a w…oh, never mind.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Not Bruce, the old Seawolf, is it?
August 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Hey, Zolt–swell gravitar!
August 7th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
adam #11: Thank you for putting that so clearly. You summarized what Taranto said even better than he said it. Pelosi’s behavior is really outrageous.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
By the way, Howard, I don’t think you needed to strike out anything in your post. Apparently some of the protesters were stupid enough to use swastikas to compare Obama’s plan to Nazism, but Pelosi was outrageously giving the impression that the protesters were Nazi sympathizers.
Another point is that even if she had condemned them because they were making inappropriate Nazi comparisons, it would be pretty ironic given how commonplace it was to compare the Bush administration to Nazis. I don’t remember a single Republican politician ever complaining about that.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I understand your point, Peter, but I personally think swastikas should be off-limits to everyone. As to what liberals did with respect to Bush, I wouldn’t want to condone the actions of these protesters based on what boobs did when Bush was president.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:28 pm