Mob Rule Spreading

This time it’s Majority Leader Steny Hoyer who has to contend with fake, Astroturf “voters.” These people, who presumably were bused in by an ad agency or political consultant, do a diabolically clever job of impersonating concerned American citizens:

In his press briefing today, Robert Gibbs fielded some questions about the administration’s effort to slander the plurality of Americans who don’t like the Democrats’ health care plan. Here, Jake Tapper asks Gibbs about his claim that the video that shows Barack Obama advocating “single payer” medicine is “misinformation”:

QUESTION: Is it misinformation that in 2003 President Obama, then a state senator, supported a single-payer health care system?
GIBBS: I think, again, if you look at the statements that have been put up on other Internet sites that splice a bunch of stuff together, and I think if you look at the answers that state senator, U.S. senator, and President Barack Obama has given on that, I think — we hope to provide people with a full and accurate picture, not something that — only the words that opponents might want to see.

If you thought that answer made any sense whatsoever, you could have a future as a White House press secretary. It’s telling, though, that Gibbs viciously slanders those who oppose Obama’s policies, and then can’t string a coherent sentence together when asked to back up his claims.
Later in the press briefing, Gibbs was asked about the administration’s “fishy” email program. Once again, no answers were forthcoming:

QUESTION: Do you know how many e-mails have been sent to the [email protected] address?
And, secondly, isn’t the White House required by law to save all correspondence it receives? So will it be informing individuals whose e-mails have been forwarded that they might want to have a chance to correct the historical record about the alleged fishiness of their e- mails?
GIBBS: I, for the life of me, didn’t understand your question.
(CROSSTALK)
GIBBS: Obviously, the National Archives documents correspondence with the White House.
QUESTION: So the people whose e-mails have been forwarded, they won’t be informed that their e-mails are being forwarded to the government?
GIBBS: I — maybe I’m missing something. I’m sure you’re hatching some nefarious plot, but I, for the life of me, can’t understand it.

That was a pretty good question, actually. Given that, as we noted this morning, Obama’s dissident database will remain secure against Freedom of Information Act requests and must be maintained for years to come, some people may want to know whether their names have been reported to the government as “fishy” citizens.

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