GOP Aide gets caught bloggin as a "progressive"

[uponit7771]

2006 story that REALLY needs to be posted here...no doubt

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/GOP_aide_busted_for_fake_blog_0925.html

BTW: The hate is obvious now...k?

Thx

[inthebrain]

1. Lemme guess, nobody could tell the difference.

[Mithreal]

25. New Dem is a pretty comfortable fit for Republicans

No point in them trying to pose as liberals.

[Raine]

26. Yeah why would they bother

they're getting what they want.

[depakid]

2. The sycophantry among some is obvious, too

to be sure....

Maybe some of them are plants or being being paid to post, too.

:crazy:

[TomCADem]

3. Well, This IS a Partisan Board With A Pro-Democratic Point Of View

I mean if you want board full of people who do not share your ideals, you could go to free republic. Plus, a sycophant is "a person who uses flattery to win favour from individuals wielding influence." Thus, to be a sycophant, I would have to respond to your post by saying, "depakid, that was so witty. You are a mighty smart one."

Praising some third party anonymously on an internet message board is not likely to win favor or influence with the person being referenced.

[depakid]

4. Some still believe in traditional Democratic values

others will promote whatever right wing corporatist policies the administration or Senate pulls out of their hat, with the talking points of the day.

Considering "cui bono" -perhaps they're the ones who might be more comfortable in a new home.

[TomCADem]

6. People Promote Right Wing Corporatist Values By Aligning Themselves With Corporatists...

Like Grover Norquist, Glenn Beck, Tea baggers and the Republican party. When someone is spamming "Kill The Bill," and attacking Democrats in every post with positive posts only for those Democrats who attack fellow Democrats, then you have to wonder why are they on a board called "Democratic Underground."

Are we so naive to think that what happens in Town Halls with folks purposely trying to be disruptive does not take place in message boards like this one? The OP merely refers to a story where one such astro turfer was caught.

Now, am I pro-Democrat? Absolutely. I generally support most Democrats. Most of my posts tend to be supportive of Democratic candidates and officials with notable exceptions like Bart Stupak who I would happily contribute to his defeat, since he would happily torpedo HCR to advance his anti-choice agenda.

I think the bigger question are folks who attacks everyone and everything Democratic, except when a Democrat attacks a fellow Democrat. These serial posters remind me of the person in a town hall who jumps up and shouts, then sits down before he can be evicted from the town hall. Their purpose is not to participate in a dialogue, but to disrupt.

The right wing organized to disrupt health care reform town halls and shut them down. I think we see some of that here with serial posts that attack Democrats on a Democratic website.

[laughingliberal]

12. Aligning with Corporatists might be one way to support Corporatism

Another way would be to support corporatist policies and legislation. I haven't ever voted for anyone but a Democrat but I do think I have a right to say when I see them selling us out to the same interests the Republicans sold us out to.

I try not to attack Democrats, as such, but to oppose their policies when I don't agree with them. I remember how we laughed at the right wingers for marching in lockstep with Bush and other right wing leaders but this is now, somehow, the way Democrats and liberals should behave?

[blondeatlast]

44. We have the Executive and Legislative branches, so what's the point?

Even if they are too far right for your tastes, what's to gain from having right-leaning Dems get paid to post?

I just don't get that thinking whatsoever.

[Maraya1969]

5. I wonder what number of Progressives do such deceitful things. I bet

the number is way lower than Republicons. Republicons truly seem to be the party of lying, cruel, ignorant and childish behavior.

Like the ones who un-rec'd this thread. You have nothing constructive to add. Your whole gig it aimed at destruction.

Proud of yourselves are you?

[TomCADem]

7. Its The Internet Version Of Screaming At A Townhall To Disrupt It...

The astro-turfers specifically created a strategy designed to demoralize and disrupt efforts to inform the public and generate support for HCR. Their goal was not engage in dialogue, but to disrupt it. Now, when you have a series of one line spam attacking Democratic officials and candidates, and sometimes even defending Republicans, you have to wonder.

I think that most posters on this Board are supportive of Democrats. However, there definitely is a current of posts that are amazing hostile to Democrats. You would almost think that these posters were trying to discourage and demoralize Democrats by saying "Why bother supporting so and so? They are all corportists." Another favorite of mine that the "Democrats in Congress are just like the Republicans." Of course, I always ask, what does that make the Republicans in Congress who vote against everything the Democrats in Congress support?

Sadly, I don't really get a good response to such questions.

So, Real Democrats, Keep The Faith, and ignore the closet internet version of town hall protestors!

[laughingliberal]

13. It is also demoralizing for those who are trying to push our legislators and the administration

towards more progressive legislation to battered about the head for not falling in line.

In a rather lengthy conversation with the White House this past week, I told them that the bashing of liberals by the President's Chief or Staff was guaranteed to suppress the liberal vote and that is was, suspiciously, beginning to look like that was the intent. I told the gentleman on the phone that demoralized liberals would, likely, not vote in the numbers needed to maintain our strong majorities if they kept hearing these insults out of the White House staff and I couldn't think that a group of people as intelligent as the President's team could be oblivious to this. I said the only conclusion I could draw from that, adding it together with the White House's unfailing support of the more conservative Senate HCR bill and total lack of support for the measures the House considered important, was that this Democratic administration had decided that fewer progressives and more Republicans in the House and Senate somehow benefited them. I made it clear I did not want to believe that was the truth but that the unrelenting thumbing of their noses at the liberal voters was making it difficult to draw any other conclusion.

I also told him I was a lifelong Democrat and that the election of Barack Obama was one of the most exciting and moving moments of my political life and that it was breaking my heart to find myself on the opposite side of the road from him on this HCR bill and his handling of the Wall Street/Main Street divide. I asked him to please let the President know that most of the liberal members of the Democratic party, in my opinion, want very much to support him but that it would help if we saw a few progressive ideas from him on the issues which are affecting us the most like HCR and the economy.

The gentleman on the phone asked me what kind of policies I would prefer to see (as opposed to the ones I had said I was against). I told him it would go a long way if I saw the President stand up for some of what was in the House bill and quit throwing the House, who all have to stand for reelection in Nov., to the wolves in the Senate. I said it would, also, help if we heard some progress towards restoring some fairness to the tax system which has favored the very wealthy over working and middle class Americans for 30 years. I made sure to mention I was grateful to see the working and middle class tax cut in the stimulus bill but that we needed to make sure the Bush tax cuts are rolled back and that the very wealthy and big corporations start to pay their fair share and quit mooching off the rest of it. He thanked me for my comments and said he would pass them on.

I'm nothing if not direct. I'm certainly not saying anything in any forum about any Democratic official that I would not say directly to them given the opportunity. And I am constantly looking for policies coming out of the White House that I can support. I would really like to be cheering the President on. And I would be really, really happy if I were given more opportunities to do so.

[TomCADem]

14. Are Joe Lieberman and Bernie Saunders The Same? No.

Yet, sadly we need the votes of the Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman's of the world who would happily allow the bills to go down in defeat without breaking a sweat. We cannot generalize to all "Democrats" when most share our beliefs. This includes Barack Obama.

I want the President to get things done, and get the best HCR bill he can get. Unlike many, I do not think there is anything noble about a moral victory in a defeated progressive bill.

Finally, in attacking Democrats, many give Republicans a free pass on their opposition, which has forced liberal Democrats to cut deals with a few DINOs.

[laughingliberal]

16. I believe the President lobbied behind the scenes against the PO

No way to prove it but it is a preponderance of the evidence that leads me to that conclusion. And I believe Lieberman killed the Medicare expansion at the request of the White House and I know Harry Reid well enough to know he thinks so, too and is pissed about it. Harry is an interesting case. Not as liberal, by far, as I would like but nowhere near as conservative as many here seem to think he is.

I am not in favor of a President getting things done just to get them done. Bush got a lot done, too. I am in favor of a President getting things done that will, actually, help the American people. I know you and I do not agree on this but the Senate bill, unchanged, is more harmful to the country than no bill. In my conversation with the White House the other day I did call with a list of my objections to the Senate bill. The gentleman on the phone asked me if I would prefer to see no HCR to having the Senate bill passed unchanged and I told him I would. I said this was the hardest position I had ever had to take because I worked 25 years as an RN and watched the destruction of health care in this country as for profit interests took over and I had hoped and prayed for reform of the system for many years. He was very nice and asked me a lot of very relevant questions specifically what parts of the bill could be changed that would help me think it would be better to pass it. I noted several things which would need to change to gain my support.

1) I told him I was 100% opposed to the excise tax on workers' benefits and favored the House's surcharge on the very wealthy who have seen their taxes cut consistently over the years as the working and middle classes carried the burden of Reagan's increase in payroll taxes. I told him I realized one of the goals behind the excise tax was to encourage employers to provide less expensive insurance policies but that it was the wrong direction, that it was an attempt to ration care and save money by putting the onus on the patient. I noted that this was the thinking behind Bush's 'ownership society' that was based on making care more expensive for the consumer and that it negated the goal of early detection that would save money in the long run. I said we needed to be encouraging employers to provide better, not worse, policies for their employees.
2) I said that John Ensign's amendment that would force people into 'wellness programs' that required them to meet certain goals or be charged many times more on their premiums needed to be removed. I noted it was not only a way to charge more for those with preexisting conditions and health concerns but it was also a huge hit on privacy rights as it gives employers access to employees' private health information.
3) I said the national exchange in the House bill needed to be adopted over the state by state plan in the Senate bill. Along with this, I said, there needed to be funding for a strong enforcement mechanism because regulations without enforcement are no better than no regulation at all.
4) The loophole that allowed rescissions to continue needed to be closed. Period.
5) The loophole allowing annual limits on care needed to be closed.
6) The community ratings model from the House bill needed to be adopted over the Senate's which allows gouging of older Americans.

He asked if I was concerned that if the bill was defeated we would not be able to attempt reform for years to come. I told him what I have said here: that if we do nothing the private for profit insurance industry will die a natural death, that they are now only able to prop up their profits by raising premiums and they have reached the point where they are pricing themselves out of customers, that they are losing millions now as unemployment remains high, employers are dropping coverage, and those buying privately are dropping coverage. I noted that as they are slated to start losing on average 11 million customers a year to Medicare for the next 21 years. I said that if we don't reform health care now the insurance companies will be on their knees asking us to in a very few years, that they need reform as much as we do and they have done a great job of brainwashing us into believing they hold all the cards when they don't. I said,, given the fact that we are saving their industry, we are in a position to demand more concessions from them and we should.

I haven't given the Repubicans a pass on a damned thing but I have absolutely no leverage over any Republicans. I think the ridiculous amount of time the President spent calling for a 'bipartisan' bill when he could have been calling for a good bill was a big mistake. I am a constituent of John Ensign's and I have let his office know of my displeasure over his amendment and his vote against Al Franken's amendment supporting victims of rape who work for our defense contractors.

[Vinnie From Indy]

17. I agree

I have always felt that a deal was worked out between Obama's people and the health insurance industry/Drug industry. It may have even been done during the campaign. In any event, there is an extremely strong argument to be made that when all the pieces are looked at including the delay in getting the bill done and the Joe Lieberman event, that Obama was NEVER serious about a PO. The way they set the whole thing up was to allow Obama to publicly push for a PO knowing one would never hit his desk for a Presidential signature. In fact, I would say the evidence is almost overwhelming that the President and many in Congress wanted to kill a real reform bill without leaving their fingerprints on the knife that killed it. Enter Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.

[Raine]

27. TOTALLY on point. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

35. Boy did you ever speak for me and you did a GREAT job!

Smoke and mirrors covering up a lot of bad bad stuff. I also love how the Ensign amendment (you, know,a Republican amanedment for a bill that no single Republican is voting for and where all the so-called bi-partisanship accomplished NOTHING except an excuse to water down a real reform plan) made it in when you can see exactly what a Trojan horse it is to provide an excuse to raise rates.

You are completely correct that the insurnace industry is about to go down the tubes, of course taking the American public into bankrupcty court with it. NO ONE can really "afford" insurance as it stands right now - not the country, not businesses, not individuals.

I am so sick of being raped and plundered by one God-forsaken, immoral, unethical, disgusting industry that I could render my clothes, rip clumps off my hair out and stand on soapboxes screaming at the top of my lungs over it. I agree with you that Obama and his administration worked very hard behind the scenes to kill off a real public option and drug negotiation - the ONLY 2 THINGS that actually would have reduced COSTS for consumers and profits for the industry. AARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!

[Bluenorthwest]

42. Of course, neither Bernie nor Joe is a Democrat

so I do not really see the point of comparing them. If I could, I'd vote for Bernie, and he's not a Democrat. So often here, people hold Bernie up as an example of a good Democrat, and the irony of that is as thick as a three day recount.

[highplainsdem]

15. +1

[Doctor_J]

8. There are a few here

Most are on my Ignore list by now though

[uponit7771]

9. Bump, wanna make sure folk know about this

[ClassWarrior]

10. Yup. There's trolls playing both sides of this. It's always been that way.

NGU.

[havocmom]

11. Some of us have been denigrated as paranoids or tin-foilers for suggesting this happens

Makes me a tad curious about the folks who insist on making fun of us 'paranoids' around here ;)

[GreenMetalFlake]

18. how revealing that the notorious ones here at DU have avoided posting in this thread

[Robb]

41. Pardon me

...But welcome to DU! :hi:

[Bobbie Jo]

43. *snort*

:hi: :rofl:

[blondeatlast]

45. ...

:spray:

[uponit7771]

19. Yeap, making sure this is known...bumpety

[Zomby Woof]

20. Sounds very maverick-y

[tkmorris]

22. LOL yes. Yes it does.

[havocmom]

24. LOL. Big guy, we luvs ya!

ZW always posts truth :rofl:

[Occulus]

30. LOL

:spray:

[GreenMetalFlake]

36. yes, in that drops-to-knees-to-kiss-ass way. sure does!

[Bobbie Jo]

39. Your insinuation makes no sense.

You see, he WANTS Democrats to succeed.

Try again.

On edit: The "demoralizers" among us are the most obvious, don't you think?

If you were going to disrupt this board and sow discord, you certainly wouldn't be offering any words of support for Democrats.

[blondeatlast]

46. LOL! nt

[AspenRose]

21. I wanna know how much they get paid

I could use a part time job to help with the bills }(

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

23. Brilliant!

We go to the GOP and pose as conservatives to get them to pay us to post on DU! Awesome!

[ima_sinnic]

29. who's "we"?

I find your wording quite odd.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

37. All of us who waste to much time on DU

Hey! Might as well get paid for it!

[DCBob]

28. Does DU investigate such things?

Maybe a quick check of DU member's IPs to see if any originate from GOP offices would be prudent.

[Blue-Jay]

31. You should check my IP.

I'm a sneaky bastard!

[ima_sinnic]

32. unfortunately, these are the "work at home" jobs we read about

though some might be that obvious--telecommuters are much cheaper for cheap-ass organizations to maintain, and working at home is easy and fun.

[ima_sinnic]

33. kick

[scheming daemons]

34. There are lots of fake "progressives" posting at DU...

... after a while, you can tell who they are.

[formercia]

40. I'm a Liberal disguised as a 'Progressive.'

Ok, I admit it was a lack of judgment. :rofl:

So, should we be good Commies and denounce each other?

[Bobbie Jo]

38. Kick

Too late to rec.

[Xenotime]

47. Was he blogging here?