Desperate Measures: The return of the "dangerous tea-party extremists" meme?

Many thanks to Professor Jacobson for Post of the day status and welcome to his readers!


President not playing well in Peoria? Signs of Democratic Doom are popping up nearly everywhere while no one seems to be buying the notion the world will not survive if the mosque formerly known as Ground Zero Mosque  doesn't get built.  What is a "cackle of rads"  to do?  Desperate times call for desperate measures folks.

It's time to dust off the "dangerous tea-party extremists" meme" and give it another whirl:

A Politico story today makes me think that someday in the not-too-distant future we’ll look back on this moment and find it almost quaint that we thought the tea party movement was the be-all and end-all of GOP-affiliated right-wing extremism. The story suggests that there are some areas of extremism where many teabaggers don’t want to go — but there are plenty of other people willing to do what the ‘baggers won’t:

Yes, a Politico article that goes to lengths to portray the mosque debacle as a bigger problem for Republicans and tea-partiers than it is for Democrats certainly seems a good place to start the world wondering whether dangerous tea-partiers can resist the urge to descend into dangerous religious extremism doesn't it?

Politico  keeps the ball rolling today with a shock headline, "Shot fired at Al Franken's condo."  Politico relies on the report from a spokesperson for that paragon of credibility and self-restraint Senator Al Franken:

“Right now it’s under investigation by the Minneapolis Police and the Capitol Hill Police,” Franken spokesman Marc Kimball told POLITICO.

Kimball said that “there was some damage to one of the window panes” in a double-paned window.  Kimball added that “nothing like this” has ever happened to the senator’s residence.

Minneapolis police have not said whether they have a suspect or if they believe Sen. Franken was specifically being targeted.

Notice there is absolutely nothing in Kimball's statement to support Politico's breathless headline.  It seems we have heard such dubious threats before.  CNN offers the "just-the-facts ma'am" version of events:

Sgt. Bill Palmer of the Minneapolis Police Department told CNN that members of the Franken family recently reported finding a hole in a window of their Minneapolis condominium that appeared to be made by either a BB gun or small rock.

The hole damaged a double-paned window, but did not penetrate the second pane, Palmer also said.

The object in question was not found and it remains unclear exactly when the damage occurred. Palmer said that it is unlikely the possible BB shot was directed at the Minnesota Democrat.

"I find it unlikely people actually even know where the senator lives," Palmer said.

Nothing to see here folks as even the liberal blog Wonkette is forced to admit.  Wonkette laughs off the Politico headline as a rather desperate attempt to make "instant August news."   There is really no doubt, however, it was Franken who hit the panic button right before he felt he felt the overwhelming compulsion to feed Politico a dramatic blow-by-blow of a story that seems to lack minor things - like substance.  

To be sure, the rantings of two left-wing loons does not a meme make.  Caveats notwithstanding, Democrats have pulled the dangerous card from the bottom of the deck before; these items had all the hallmarks of the same dirty tricks.  It isn't as though they tend to learn their lesson.  Does a day go by when they don't play the race and/or bigotry card?  When the going gets tough, it is the Dems and the Professional left who get a tad - dare I say it - dangerous.


Thanks to Theo Spark for linking!

Because He is Good Enough and Smart Enough and Dog-gone it, The Netroots Like Him

Never before in the history of man has a more appropriate keynote speaker been chosen to address a group. CNN informs us that Al Franken has been chosen to keynote the annual gathering of liberal bloggers called together by their progressive pilot Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily KOS. The Netroots explain their choice:

"Even during the recount, we knew Sen. Franken would be a fighter," Raven Brooks, the executive director of Netroots Nation said in a statement. "Whether he's fighting for health care or education, he's shown that he represents American families and isn't afraid to stand up for strong progressive values."

Al Franken represents American families? While he does stand up for progressive values (oxymoron anyone?), it doesn't seem likely his presence will give credibility to the progressives or their causes. Nevertheless, he does represent them well and I applaud the choice of Franken as keynote speaker. May they get plenty of press coverage for their little gathering.
H/T: Memeorandum
Cross Posted at Potluck

Dog Gone It, Al Franken Is Mad Enough

Now we know who the one Democratic Senator who really expressed his frustration on Wednesday. Politico has it from five separate sources who were "in the room" that Senator Al Franken lit into David Axelrod over the lack of leadership from the White House on health care.   Dog gone it:

A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.

“It was all about leadership and health care and what the plan was going to be,” the source said.

Franken — a comedian turned liberal talk show host — vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.

Jeepers, who could have seen that coming?  Franken wasn't alone in his anger and frustration but he evidently was the most vocal about his concerns.  It seems a little pep talk from the President triggered the incident though he wasn't the direct recipient of the tongue lashing:

Democratic senators are frustrated that the White House hasn’t done more to win over the public on health care reform and other aspects of its ambitious agenda — and angry that, in the wake of Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race, the White House hasn’t done more to chart a course for getting a health care bill to the president’s desk.

In his public session with the senators Wednesday, Obama urged them to “finish the job” on health care but did not lay out a path for doing so. That uncertainty appeared to trigger Franken’s anger, and the sources in the room said he laid out his concerns much more directly than any senator did in the earlier public session.

 I don't know why they would be waiting for the former Senator from Illinois to direct them on the path forward to health care.  Did he have any legislative accomplishments when he was there or was that just an inconvenient little pit stop on the path to the White House?  Perhaps Chris "tingly legs" Matthews remembers a few of Obama's legislative accomplishments:  Oh that's right, there weren't any.   Pretty fitting outcome that he should have no significant legislative accomplishments as President, in my humble opinion.

The left wing punditry and blogging heads have been busy with post mortems on health care.  While there is blame to go around, much of it is directed at the Senate and this line in particular caught my attention:

There's no getting around it. As SEIU President Andy Stern said recently, Senate Democrats "had a chance, a gift, from the American people--60 votes, so they could, for the first time in their life, debate any single issue they chose to debate. And they squandered it."

Here is what they all seem to miss, the American people didn't give them 60 votes.  I happen to know lots of conservatives who voted for Arlen Specter when he ran as a Republican.  We'll probably never know the actual vote count in Minnesota but the Democrats outmaneuvered Republicans legally so they seated Senator Franken as a result.  If they squandered their super majority it was because they got it on the cheap and didn't care whether the American people thought it was deserved.   Now they are left to point fingers and cringe when their Senator Franken gets a  little aggressive with them behind closed doors.  Dog gone it, seems like every dog does have it's day after all.
More at Memeorandum
Another Black Conservative  writes:

I hate to be the one to say, I told you so, but when Franken was sworn in, I knew he would be trouble for the Dems. Reap what you sow guys, reap what you sow.

Exactly.

Did ACORN Send Franken to the Senate?

Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star Tribune recalls how ACORN held a special fondness for the comedian turned Senate jester Al Franken during his run against Norm Coleman.  The feeling was quite mutual:

 Franken returned the esteem: "I'm thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement," he gushed in a press release. He added that he was "more motivated than ever to work with ACORN."

I'll just bet he was motivated.   ACORN has quite the checkered past when it comes to digging up deceased and fictional voters to come to the aid of Democratic candidates in distress.  As Franken ended up taking his seat in the Senate by a mere 312 votes, he needed any vote ACORN's group Project Vote could throw his way. 

Along with  a few of the many cases prosecuted against ACORN for voter fraud,  Kersten cites the July, 2009 report the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.issued on ACORN as evidence of the troubled history with registration:

To date, nearly 70 ACORN employees have been convicted in 12 states for voter registration fraud, though no federal charges have been filed against ACORN’s directors.  In fact, Pennsylvania judge Richard Zoller – after holding a low-level ACORN employee liable for election law violations – noted that “somebody has to go after ACORN.”

Kersten notes that 43,000 voters were registered through ACORN, representing 75% of the states new voter registrations.  Because ACORN uses strategies meant to overwhelm overworked clerks at the last moment with mass quantities of new registrations at the last moment, detecting fraud is difficult.  In many cases it is only discovered by chance.  Despite assurances from the ACORN endorsed Secretary of State Mark Ritchie that the integrity of the vote was protected in the 2008 Senatorial election in Minnesota,  Kersten doesn't seem convinced. 

While many, myself included,  had real doubts about the votes Franken managed to come up with in the Minnesota recount, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air believes after a thorough review Coleman lost by choosing a less aggressive strategy than did Franken:

None of the people involved, most of them GOP partisans, believed that Franken “stole” the recount or did anything illegal. All of them insisted that the difference came down to two different approaches.  Team Coleman wanted a collegial, Minnesota-style approach, while Franken’s team saw this as an adversarial process that pushed both teams to use every legal advantage available for each client.  Put more simply, Coleman got outboxed, and badly, especially in the early days of the recount.

This assessment makes Kersten's question, though largely moot with Franken at this point, worth pursuing.  It has long been my belief that as Franken was sworn in giving Democrats the 60th vote, American voters felt the straw breaking the camel's back.  Though it could be coincidental, support for Obama, Congress and health care reform started the downward side during the same week.  The recent problems brought to light through the Giles and O'Keefe videotapes, cast a long shadow of suspicion of all things ACORN.  Raising Franken's connection to ACORN casts greater doubt on dubious Democratic modes of operation.  That Democrats managed to swear in another Senator by changing the rules in Massachusettes compounds their credibility problems.  Most importantly, however, these questions need to be raised and investigated to insure that none of this takes place in the rapidly approaching midterm elections.