Democrats try to shut off debate by personalizing

Politico:

Liberal allies of President Barack Obama aren’t just getting mad at conservative attacks on his agenda. They are getting even in a way calculated to hit conservatives where it counts: their pockets.

Former GOP House leader Dick Armey, former New York lt. gov. and conservative activist Betsy McCaughey and even Fox News’s Glenn Beck have all seen their financial livelihoods threatened by political activists — who in several cases managed to make good on the threats.

The latest prominent figure in liberal cross hairs is U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue. Environmental activists, citing alleged conflicts of interest, have begun a campaign to pressure him to resign from the board of Union Pacific Railroad or from his longtime post as head of the nation’s top business lobby.

“We’re losing our self-government with these Chicago-style arm-twisting tactics,” complained McCaughey, who resigned from the board of Cantel Medical Group after the firm was connected — unfairly, according to it and McCaughey — to her claims that Obama’s health care reform would lead to death panels and other calamities. “Clearly, it’s an effort to silence critics,” she added.

McCaughey and other Obama critics are falling victim to tactics honed as much by the right as by the left: Bloggers research the opposition and post material that is picked up by allies on cable talk shows, who push it into the broader media.

But the new twist is that private firms, some with little connection to the policy debate and little warning, are being hauled into the public courtyard because of their association with an advocate-employee.

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ustin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, is also unapologetic for pushing back against Obama’s critics.

“We said all along that we would take on the opposition and anyone standing in the way” of the White House agenda, he said.

“August was a real wake-up call for progressives when health care reform was endangered by an angry mob organized by an alliance of insurance companies, oil companies and right-wing fear-mongers,” he added.

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Remember when President Obama said the debate was not about him? For the left it is going to be about the people that oppose them, because they are incapable of really arguing the issues in a compelling way. Conservatives have to rise above this kind of politics and continue to attack on the issues and the weak points of rationed health care and the Democrats anti energy policies.

Remember these are the people who want to take your autos and toilet paper away from you.