The Democrats are Actually Astroturfing

You probably heard Pelosi and her minions accusing the Republicans of astroturfing at all the townhall protests (meaning it's not a grassroots movement, just plants organized by high-ranking officials).

Anybody who's been at this week's Monmouth County protests got a very clear picture of what's going on. Protesters (Republicans or not) came completely disorganized, individuals getting together because they disagree with Obama's plans. There was no involvement of any Republican organization, township, county or state, except for a few Tea Party groups. On the other side, you had a handful of well organized groups, armed with literature and signs, members of OFA. OFA is not Acorn or MoveOn, it's not a proxy for Obama, it's his own organization. OFA's website is barackobama.com. You didn't have to ready the signs to see on whose side everybody was. If it was a hand-written sign, they were against socialized healthcare. If they had a profesionally printed one, they were for it. Also, while most of the protesters spoke freely (or read hand-written notes), ALL Obama supporters read from a printed statement.

So both at Frank Pallone's and Rush Holt's townhall meetings, Democrats were organized by the OFA from Washington (or is it Chicago?). They didn't even involve the county or state Democrats, because they weren't worried about a grassroots movement. It was all astroturfing. Vic Scudiery's organization was completely absent from both townhalls. At Pallone's, Democrat freeholder Amy Mallet wasn't even invited in, she was sent to the back of the line.

And this is not only in New Jersey. You might be familiar with Tim Bishop's townhall in NY, where grasroots protesters were faced by CWA union members in uniform, bused in from all over the state. When a Dem tells you that the protests are astroturfing, just ask for a specific example, because they can't give you any.