Keith Calls Out Bachmann and Friends for Their "Press Conference"
By Heather Saturday Nov 07, 2009 1:00pm
Keith and Eugene Robinson had the same reaction I did to watching members of Congress out there calling for something close to the overthrow of our government. I agree completely with Eugene Robinson—it was frankly appalling.
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.
An elected Republican official today is leading a protest on the west steps of the Capitol that compared health care reform to Nazi death camps and encouraged mindless harassment of and possibly violence against the government. Not tea baggers anymore, not demagogic commentators, an actual congresswoman inciting a hateful rebellion against the rule of law and order. Her name is Michele Bachmann.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: As if that were not bad enough, Ms. Bachmann today joined by the House minority leader as well as countless other GOP representatives. This orgy of veiled threat and not so veiled racism of white power minority rule now fully the province of the Republican Party. Welcome to the coup!
Congressman Bachmann staging what she tried to claim was a spontaneous meet-up of opponents to health care reform, in 25 buses paid for by the AstroTurf group Americans for Prosperity, could be considered spontaneous. An estimated 4,000 people today answering Ms. Bachmann‘s call, bringing with them on those buses, not just their misunderstanding of health care reform but also their hatred of President Obama, as well as pure hatred, period.
Lee Fang of ThinkProgress.org taking these photographs of a sign that reads “National Socialist Health Care, Dachau, Germany, 1945,” superimposed over the horrific images of the corpses from Dachau. Other signs are slightly less shameful but many in no way related to health care.
Congresswoman Bachmann urging these people to rebel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BACHMANN: It was Thomas Jefferson who said—a revolution every now and then is a good thing. What do you think?
(CHEERING)
BACHMANN: You feel so good right now, and we, the members of Congress that are gathered on these steps for this press conference, are so honored that you are here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Press conference? The geniuses at the Republican study committee trying to rebrand today‘s event not as a protest, nor a rally, but as a press conference. Urging House staffers in an e-mail last night to please make sure your boss does not turn this event a rally.
Does any of this sound like press conference to you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL BROUN, GEORGIA: Who will kill this bill? You will! You will! And we must. The Constitution of the United States starts with three very powerful words: “We, the people.” And we the people are speaking. Nancy Pelosi, listen.
Fellow patriots, go tell your congressman you‘re not going to eat this rotten stinking fish that is Pelosi health care! We are going to put a stop sign in front of her steamroller of socialism. Go to it, Patriots!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: That man is a doctor. And someone has an appointment to see him. At least Congressman Broun knows how the Constitution starts. The Republicans‘ top dog can‘t even cite the correct document.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOEHNER: I‘m going to stand with you and all freedom-loving Americans against this bill. This is my copy of the Constitution. And I‘m going to stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the preamble, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: If Minority Leader Boehner had read his prop copy of the Constitution, perhaps he‘d know that he was actually quoting the Declaration of Independence—or maybe he thinks that‘s the same thing as the Constitution. Which might explain the Republican health care bill Minority Leader Boehner‘s office having falsely claimed that that bill, once it was finally revealed, would cover millions more Americans than the Democrats‘ bill would. In fact, it would cover fewer millions Americans, making the nation‘s health care crisis that much worse.
The Congressional Budget Office in its analysis of the bill, determining that the Republicans would leave will 52 million Americans uninsured. Right now, there are 46 million in this country without coverage—which means under the Republican plan, 6 million more Americans would become uninsured.
And the GOP‘s bills impact on the deficit? It would be $36 million worse than the impact of the Democratic bill.
Time now to call on our own Eugene Robinson, associate editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of “The Washington Post.”
Gene, good evening.
ROBINSON: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Today, we saw a member of Congress encouraging harassment of the government, fomenting—her word was revolution. And her behavior was sanctioned by her colleagues, the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives. And I recall that during the previous administration, if you disagreed with policy and just said it, let alone staged some sort of protest with banners and references to the Second World War, you immediately got branded a traitor. There seems to have been some kind of a shift of terminology in these times.
ROBINSON: Right. Your recollection is correct. I think it was more of a shift of party and control of the White House, and both houses of Congress. And I think that the outrage that was displayed at criticism of the president of the time of war a few years ago was situational. And it seems to no longer apply when a certain party is no longer in charge.
OLBERMANN: Yes. Did the wars end? Did I miss that? Did I not get the memo?
ROBINSON: You know, I missed the memo if they did. The wars—the wars did not end. And it really was quite a spectacle. I mean, this was an elected congresswoman who presumably was sent here to make laws, out there doing this ridiculous—what do they call it—a press conference? I‘d love to know the media organizations that all those people represented who were out there bused in by the Astroturf group.
It was a—it was frankly appalling. But that‘s Michele Bachmann.
OLBERMANN: But it‘s always been appalling and it‘s always been Michele Bachmann, and I don‘t think she has any idea of what she‘s doing truly and its possible impact.
But today was when the Republicans say, “We own this.” There is racism in here. There is bigotry. There‘s refusal to acknowledge the outcome of an election that was a pretty clear-cut decision. There is a misunderstanding of a vital health care issue. There are a lot of things going on here.
But they‘re being stoked up into a rage and this was not—correct me if I‘m wrong about this—but this was the day the Republican Party said, “Yes, we‘ll take this. We‘ll run on this. We‘ll become the party of hate.”
ROBINSON: Well, it seems to me that they gave up any pretense of deniability today. When you have the minority leader out there joining the protest, the rally, whatever it was, with this horrific and frankly disgusting imagery that attended it, I—there is a certain amount of ownership that they take. And I think this is something that should be remembered. These are video clips that should be kept and should be played.
OLBERMANN: On an associated point with this, how did the organizers of this not realize, you know what? We had better get somehow, even if we‘ll have to pay them to show up, some black faces, some brown faces, some Asian people, or somebody in this crowd, other than the crowd that we‘ve seen at every piece of videotape that looked like—that looked exactly the same. This is otherwise going to look like a pro-apartheid rally in South Africa 35 or 40 years ago.
ROBINSON: Well, now, this is going to sound tendentious, Keith.
OLBERMANN: All right.
ROBINSON: But I went to the Republican National Convention last year, and you did not see many minorities there. And it—look, this is a—this is a party that has been more and more hostile to minorities, to Latinos, to African-Americans. It certainly perceived that way and this didn‘t help that image at all. That—you know, that seems to be the hand they‘ve decided to play.
OLBERMANN: It‘s terrifying.
Gene Robinson of MSNBC and “The Washington Post”—as always, great thanks, Gene.
ROBINSON: Good to talk to you.
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Ahh, yes, the small government, freedom loving folks rallied by Bachmann and Boehner.
Progressives invoke "small government" because they don't want the government to control anyone.
Conservatives invoke "small government" because they don't want the government to help anyone.
No one but themselves.
aren't these the same politicians that didn't listen to their constituents when they were in power? What makes them think they'll listen to them now?
I guess that sort of thing is lost on the Republicans.
Smaller government was not the original idea. Originally it was limited government and it was all about limiting the power of government over individuals. The GOP has been embracing more government power over individuals in favor of corporate interests.
If we have a country that grows, with an economy that grows and a population that grows, then government has to grow.
WHen you hear "small government" you can substitute small mind.
just call the GOP "The Seditionists". That's what they are.
"Projectionists" also works too, as they bandy about the word "traitor" against everyone other than themselves.
(Sorry, not mean as a reply.)
unrestricted, unregulated, and unrestrained Capitalism to Rethugs.
I wouldn't say limited government, but balanced government, as in the rights of the federal and the state, and within the federal between: the executive, the legislative and the judicial.
They even tried to limit participation. The vote was originally only white, property owners. Whites who owned no property couldn't vote. And the founding fathers even tried to limit the power of popular uprisings, by having a Constitution, not necessarily a historical feature of Democracies, because otherwise we might vote our rights away, or more likely, the rights of others.
There even seem to be an Aristotelian attempt to achieve a Golden Mean, and answer his concerns that Democracies were essentially selfish, and his preference for a Constitutional Monarchy. They went one step further and created a Constitutional Democracy, that seemed to have both the features of Democracies and Republics.
creation/maintenance of civil society and the protection of the common people and their interests - public commons - from predators; the greedy, wall street, corporatists, aristocracy, plutocracy's, etc.
Should be anyway
You'll notice the Constitution attempts to define and protect rights, but makes no attempt to define what kind of economy the country would have.
PUKIES it's a mental illness called sociopathy, uncurable, untreatable, permanent, crippling............. Some how I remember these 2 quotes Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
WALLSTREETBANKSTERS comes to mind and the Zionist take-over of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Arrogant lips are unsuited to a fool-- how much worse lying lips to a ruler - Proverbs 17:7
The so-called 'out of power' mafia, Booooosh, etc.
But I'm not allowed to say it here.
I remember what they did while George Bush increased the size of government more than any president before him.
I remember what they did while George Bush expanded the power of government over the people.
I remember what they did as George Bush bankrupted the country, and ran up the biggest deficit in the history of the United States.
I remember them well, they cheered him on.
Now, a black dude is in power... and they stand outside and foment rebellion, stir up some sedition.
GOPerverts, it's what I expected from them: racism and very cheap politics based on racism.
While "racism" certainly plays a part, these fascist little SOB's were no more civil when Clinton was President. He was a "pot-smoking draft dodger". And for eight years, "militias" and "domestic terrorism" was a weekly event on the TV as they claimed Clinton was "violating the Constitution".
After eight years of that, they elected their own "coke-snorting draft dodger" that actually DID violate the Constitution 9 ways to Sunday, and engaged in the most fiscally irresponsible Administration in history. And no one said "boo".
If Obama were white, we'd just be hearing "Clinton Part 2".
That's what I argued during the nomination process when some people on this site would argue Obama was the better choice because "Hillary would be a lightening rod."
Are you suggesting that because Obama stirs up the racists on the right, we should have backed Hillary, in effect, allowing the racist GOP to pick our candidate?
william murchison, a local idiot or a editorial writer in the Dallas Morning Nudes during the boosh years was arguing the over-importance of deficit spending, and I don't think he was alone in this.
He retired several years ago, and you know what he's doing now?
Teaching journalism.
... the Party's death spasms aren't pretty. But they are a mark of just how desperate the Conservative "movement" is. They truly have nothing more left than fear, bigotry and hate (and truckloads of corporate cash). Oh, and the South.
They can't build a decent size crowd of more than a few thousand with some rich guy busing half of them in. The vast majority of Americans don't agree with them, and their angry, violent rhetoric is turning people off.
Yet, Congress seems to be living on another planet, kowtowing to accommodate them, changing bills and stripping legislation. And get NOTHING in return except increased vitriol and even angrier rhetoric.
Bachmann and Cantor aren't Senators, which means they just won their reelection campaigns. Who reelected these idiots? And for the two of them to stand there and say nothing about all the "Holocaust" comparisons, banners and signs, is beyond the pale.
Washington certainly is Bizzaro World.
The minority has plenty of money, and they wield it by owning Faux News and a few other extreme media outlets (like Rush Limbaugh, an outlet unto himself). What they do is exercise the massive media voices they own, so it seems as if there are plenty of them. But quite frankly, there aren't. Every poll I've seen has shown that more than 50 percent of Americans favor some sort of government-run healthcare system, and some polls are as high as 70 percent. People want reform. Costs are going up for EVERYONE, including senior citizens. We pay the multi-million-dollar salaries of plenty of HMO CEOs and there are doctors out there who order lots of unnecessary tests so they get paid even more. The answer is doctor salaries like the Mayo and Cleveland clinics, but the ultra-rich out there do not like the idea of going on a dollar diet. And so they encourage people to attend tea parties, create racist signs, speak with hate. Sad. Money really is the root of this evil.
...the wealthiest members of Congress are Dems.
Full report.
has nothing to do with media consolidation in the hands of cancervatives, although it does highlight a few of the worst Dems.
but I don't believe for a second that those corporations are conservative or liberal, they are just greedy, period. You don't hear their shareholders bitching do you?
to those in power.
..."press conferences" are both a sop to their wingnut base and a measure of how far they're willing to go in public with their sedition.
Frankly, I'd RATHER they continue to be very public with their activities. It'd be a lot worse if they held underground meetings and rallies, wouldn't it?
Secrecy and behind closed doors: I'm thinking in particular of that Wisconsin Right-To-Life rally that Sarah Palin spoke at last night, the one in which a metal detector was set up to screen the attendees to make sure they didn't bring any food, drink, recording devices, phones, cameras, etc. etc.?
(however, the security folks at that rally DID GET the memo that hand-picked Palinistas and R.T.L'ers would be allowed their cellphones, so that they could issue Tweets to the Tweetthrong who couldn't come: http://breepalin.blogspot.com/2009/11/palin-w... )
they are just pissed they are not running things. they should bring out the magna carta and recite an operating manual for a toaster.
This is the same generation that whined in the 60's and offered no solutions. Now they are nearing retirement and still, whining, offer no solutions. It's time to vote out the generation of the sixtys and get some younger, thinking people in office.
Actually they did offer solutions.
Primarily the 26th amendment, and later ERA (the latter failed). They built on Nixon's initial environmental standards (and probably forced his hand on the issue), they created the Police Power Acts of 1973 and the Election Reforms. They pressed for more representation through various lobbyists groups, not thinking that might backfire if conservatives developed their own such groups, and laying the groundwork for the farcical Supreme Court decision that this is Free Speech. This from a Court that didn't seem to care for Tinker v Des Moines.
So when a conservative argues, as they have, over the Hillary movie case they always link the powerful monied conservative interests with Unions, saying it'll cost the latter too, even though they have no real influence to speak of anymore, in a classic example of arguing by false equivalencies.
Yeah, I'll join the 'grave-dancers union'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGI4kI5iIA4
We want toothpaste that remineralizes our teeth and we want Retin A that reduces our wrinkles and we ARE going to get it without a prescription this time around!
Here's a press conference of conservative minds for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI&fe...
Great in depth look at GOP Health Care in action.
You're correct by the by concerning Nixon era C's actually getting something accomplished.It's always odd to think of Nixon and environmental standards in the same breath but there it is.
Just look at the towering intellects at work in that tribe today.
Hoo boy.
Next thing you know business managers are going to insist that they shouldn't be expected to keep their equipment in good repair.
I have to agree, starting with that bitch with the big mouth. I wouldn't even bat an eyelash if someone permanently shut her big mouth. While preference would be to round them up and lock them all in a padded cell somewhere I have to say I would not cry if someone resorted to violence, after all that is what they are trying to stir up!
It's not illegal to be crazy in the state of Washington. We don't have involuntary committment here, except when extreme immediate harm is imminent.
these people are an embarrassment. all they have are talking points and fear tactics. nothing else.
That was press conference?? I had bytes of it here and there but wasn't really paying attention. They're Republicans, so I don't pay them much mind these days other than to laugh at them. I had assumed it was an astrobagger event or something. Speaking of Boner...I got the feeling he was little off. Like on the verge of having a nervous breakdown 'off'...thought maybe he was getting ready to squirt some tears for us.
Speaking of being on the verge...how long is the GOP going to be allowed to dance around on the edge of sedition before the Obama Administration smacks them down? Responsible and informed opposition is one thing, inciting revolution is completely another. I can't say I'm totally happy with Obama these days, but REVOLUTION?? Can you imagine what the repukes would be doing if they were still in power with Cheney and Bush still sitting in the big chair?
God's speed and protection President Obama.
"Speaking of being on the verge...how long is the GOP going to be allowed to dance around on the edge of sedition before the Obama Administration smacks them down?"
Dems don't seem to "take umbrage" too convincingly.
The Pug's have that down to an art form.
And the place to start with the revolution is by overthrowing Congresswoman Bachmann. Stick her in a tumbrel, and haul her of to the guillotine! Or throw water on her, and watch her dissolve, screaming, 'Oh, my beautiful wickedness!'
By the way, I love hearing that the Republic*nts are lambasting the AARP and the AMA. It's like watching elephants stampeding off a cliff, as though they were over-sized lemmings...
It's a myth that lemmings jump over cliffs.
.
Bachmann and Co. are (almost) worst than the teabaggers.
BTW, anybody see any minorities at this "spontaneous" event?
I have to disagree with KO. I wouldn't have called this a 'coup de twit'! It's quite obviously a Coup de Twat!
Twat, as in: "Noun 1. twat - a stupid incompetent fool...bozo, cuckoo, fathead, goof, goofball, jackass, zany, goose, fool, muggins, saphead, tomfool, sap - a person who lacks good judgment..."
yes, Coup de Twat is a MUCH better description of Bachmann, et al.
Roger Ailes is the creator of Fox news. He was also Nixon's media advisor, Regan's media coach, and G.H.W. Bush's version of Carl Rove. The stated goal of Fox was to provide a counterbalance to the "liberal media."
I don't know where he got the funding.
(Sorry for the missed linkup, I was trying to respond to the comment that the corporate media cares about profits more than propaganda. I should have added that the corporate media is losing tons of money so the only people left tend to be about something other than profits!)
they're not the problem government they rally against, as if they're not cynically exploiting dumb people to demand whatever random legislation they've been bribed into supporting.
of the over the top rhetoric from the Republican side? One of the headlines on MSNBC had me howling with laughter over how far they have gone, but it has been a long day and I forgot exactly what it was. It was either going to kill all Americans or lead to the end of America or something else Bin Laden-ish.
It is hard to see how anybody over the age of six is buying this. If the Republicans just stomped up to the stage and said that it was going to be a large expensive government program that wouldn't work they would have a lot more credibility. When they start throwing in Nazis and death camps, they seem a bit desperate.
...either Olbermann's or Maddow's people do some comparisons of how the Republican Party is using the extreme, radical, mob - aka 'tea-baggers' as their 'spear' in their opposition to Democratic control of the White House and Congress, and how the opponents of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the '20s and early '30s 'used' the Nazi Part and Adolph Hitler. Be careful Republicans, this thing could get out of control in a hurry.
Methinks that their (Republican) attempts to label Obama and the Democrats as Nazis is in recognition that it is indeed them that are following in the footsteps of the worst of the worst.
The loonies are getting more and more desperate . The crowd reminded me of the movie "one flew over the cuckoo's nest " .
I wonder how they're going to feel when the insurance companies deem obesity as a pre-existing condition. We ought to push that.
Headline: Protestors Ask, "Why Should Trim Americans Have To Pay For The Fatties?"
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