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In another exercise where our corporate media is pretending that Democrats have moved to the left to counter the fact that the Republican Party has moved way to the right, Chuck Todd treated his viewers to Conserva-Dem and former Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln pretending she received a primary challenge from some "extremist" in the Democratic Party.

I don't think anyone who has taken an honest look at her challenger, Bill Halter's career, could rightfully paint him as being someone who's some far left extremist, but Todd let Lincoln get away with that here.

Todd played a campaign ad running in Texas against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by "tea party" candidate, Ted Cruz, attacking Dewhurst as being a "moderate" and naturally Lincoln took the opportunity to decry the fact that she faced a primary challenge herself and how terrible it is that the "extremes" have taken over both parties and asked how are we going to get anything done when good "moderates" like herself are run out of politics.

What Todd and Lincoln omitted of course is that Lincoln was challenged by someone who had actual grass roots support and who would be considered a "moderate" Democrat by most of the readers here. Progressives and the unions in her state were tired of her continually voting with Republicans in favor of the insurance companies and the financial industries and mucking up the works for Democrats at every turn, like she did when they were trying to get the health care law passed. She wasn't looking out for the interests of her constituents. She was looking out for those big monied interests that were sponsoring her; a point I made when she was on this same show last year and it was Chris Cillizza hosting and doing some revisionist history for Lincoln and her time in office.

But they continue to peddle the lie that what happened to her is the same as these AstroTurf teabaggers coming into these Republican primary races and ousting incumbents and pushing the Republican Party even further to the right and deeper into the pockets of corporations and people like the Koch brothers.

What we saw here was the false equivalency game where people who would like to see some of the money out of politics and some good governance are painted as "extremists" and are somehow the equal of a Republican Party that's fallen off the cliff with their move to the right, their refusal to support ideas that used to be their own just because a Democrat has proposed them now and who have basically been captured by the Libertarian/John Birch Society wing of their party.

And it's a lie that gets told over and over in the media every day. Candidate A says the earth is flat, so rather than tell the audience that Candidate A is crazy, we'll bring in Candidate B who disagrees and "you decide." And it's a lie that refuses to acknowledge the problems in both parties with the amount of money it takes to get elected and the media companies that are paying Chuck Todd's salary that are benefiting from it. And it's the lie that conflates the word moderate with corporatist and conflates actual grass roots movements with the AstroTurf "tea party" and their Republican rebranding effort.

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As we already saw with the "class act" of Dana Loesch's husband Chris and Fox contributor Steven Crowder and their sorry, racist excuse for what's supposed to pass for a "rap" video, the real wingnuttery at CPAC this year was with the panel segments as opposed to just the general contempt for liberals and horrid policy prescriptions being offered by the headliners.

Case in point, this panel as described by the CPAC web site -- Tea Party versus Occupy:

Unlike their leftist counterparts in the “Occupy” movement, Tea Party activists do not need to be paid or coerced into advancing their ideas, free market activists said during one of the closing panels at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Dana Loesch, Editor-in-Chief of BigJournalism.com, told audience members that progressives operate from a false assumption that says Tea Party activists will not demonstrate without offered some kind of inducement. In reality, she said, they actually describing themselves. Occupy members who were demonstrating outside of the CPAC conference in D.C. acknowledged that were being paid $60 to be there.

“It always amazes me how progressives think that conservatives can’t get organized or demonstrate without getting paid,” Loesch said. “They do it for free because they believe in it.”

Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea Party express, said that the movement she was identified with has more staying power because it has the right ideas. By contrast, the “Occupy” movement has resorted to unsavory tactics and has already lost credibility with the American people.

There's a bit more there, but they somehow forgot to mention this gem from panelist and Americans for Prosperity Pennsylvania State Director Jennifer Stefano:

STEFANO: The one thing I get asked is, what is the difference between the tea party and Occupiers... but I always say one thing. If you're standing in a room and you're not sure how to separate the tea partiers from the Occupiers, do one thing. Raise an American flag. The tea party will stand and put their hands over their heart and pledge to it while the Occupiers deficate on it.

I find that really humorous since the only person I seem to remember being proud of "dropping trou" lately, was her cohort on that panel, Dana Loesch.

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Rachel Maddow exposes the monied interests pretending to be "average Americans" who are fueling the outrage at these "town halls gone wild". First up, Recess Rally, sponsored by Michelle Malkin, Smart Girl Politics, Redstate, but also American Majority, and as Rachel points out, this group is hardly made up of average Americans even though they tout themselves as being a non-profit, non-partisan organization.

The people behind American Majority; Ned Ryun, former George W. Bush speech writer, Lonny Leitner, Regional Field Director for Bush/Cheney '04, Shari Weber, former Republican State Legislator, Matt Pinnell, a former Washington conservative lobbyist.

Rachel notes that American Majority is an offshoot of another Recess Rally sponsor, The Sam Adams Alliance. Their President, John Tsarpalas, former Executive Director of the Illinois State Republican party, their Director, Joseph Lehman, former Dow Chemicals engineer and president of the nation's largest conservative state level policy think tank.

Another sponsor of Recess Rally, Let Freedom Ring. Their founder, the money man behind the television ad exploiting 9-11 to promote the Iraq invasion. Another sponsor, the swift boaters.

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Lawrence O'Donnell filling in for Ed Schultz asks Kathleen Sebelius about the astroturf protests that she and other politicians have been met with at these town hall meetings. Sebelius noted the similarities with other town hall meetings nation wide and the goal of those doing the shouting being just to disrupt the meetings and stop any meaningful discourse on health care reform.

Every Congressman who is going to hold a town hall meeting this month might want to take note of this diary at Daily KOS, and how one Congressman, Rep. Pete Visclosky managed to stop his town hall to turn into a mob scene.

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Rachel Maddow takes a look back at the history of fake-grassroots protests that have been orchestrated by the GOP in the past, and the debacle that was the "Brooks Brothers Riot" during the Bush v Gore 2000 election recount.

From The Daily Show:

The government-sponsored "cash for clunkers" program produces tangible results, but Republicans slam it for being too effective.

Fox News plants the seed, a viewer pollinates the point, and an outrage-generating ecosystem is created.

Part 2