Losing Control of the Lunatics

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Marc Ambinder get's it:

But Democrats are beginning to notice that opponents of health care reform have discredited themselves. They ramped up much too quickly. When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself. There were plenty of activists who really wanted to know about health care, and some who were probably misinformed -- scared out of their chairs -- to some degree, but the loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock. 

I have thought all along that the lunatics and bigots that make up much of what is left of the Republican base was going to send the party even deeper into the wilderness. It's only a mater of time before some lunatic inspired by Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh takes a shot at a member of congress or the president himself.   

.....the organized right lost control of its message. Lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, were being asked to respond to non-sequiturs (would you support a health care reform plan that grows the deficit?  Health care grows the deficit right now, so it's a nonsense question, one that is easy for politicians to answer); ; they found their meetings full of engorged spleens.  Unrestrained, these town hall meetings are going to turn off the type of voters Republicans most need to pressure Blue Dog Democrats -- independents who don't have red genes or blue genes.  Both Fox and MSNBC televised Sen. Arlen Specter's raucous town hall meeting live. It was full of confrontation and protest. There were boos when Specter reaffirmed his president's Americanness.

That's right - for many it's not about health care but about a black president with funny name.