Good? Or Bad and Phony?

I can't help but notice a contrast in two recent posts from Missourinet's Steve Walsh (here and here). Last night, Walsh posted photos and a short, positive summary of a protest planned and orchestrated by the very conservative The Adam Smith Foundation and Americans for Prosperity organizations.

Last night's demonstration at Congressman Ike Skelton's Jefferson City office was coordinated by the moneyed interest groups, ostensibly to express some outrage with Skelton's alleged hiding from the public, even though Ike has held a number of events in recent days to discuss health care reform proposals with constituents and local experts.

Walsh closed yesterday's post with, "Assembling peacefully ... It's a good thing."  And indeed, assembly peacefully to demonstrate and express your views is a good thing -- even a great thing.  But the distinctly positive tone in yesterday's post is quite different from that in a June post, which wondered if Congressmen and Congresswomen would even care about calls from an Organizing for America phone bank. He wrote:

The purpose of the Thursday effort has phone bank female volunteers calling Missouri women to discuss the Obama plan and to encourage calls to Congress to urge action.

A couple of questions, if I may ...

If a call to a Member of Congress comes on the heels of an orchestrated campaign by political activists ... does the congressional office really take the call seriously? I mean ... if it takes a phone call received to inspire someone to go to the trouble of making a phone call ... doesn't that show the person receiving and then making a call isn't really all that motivated in the first place? Just asking.

Organizers and activists can certainly debate the utility of protests versus phone calls -- but why was action from "an orchestrated campaign by [progressive] political activists" in June something to be dismissed (or at least seriously questioned), while action from "an orchestrated campaign by [conservative] political activists" in August is something to be celebrated?

There seems to be a bit of a double standard.

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Also: The KY3 story about the after-hours protest at Skelton's office is titled, "As Ire Over Ike's Absence Builds, Hartlzer Announces Tour." A number of stories in just the past week show that Ike has been anything but absent. 

He went out of his way to shake hands and speak with protesters on Friday, for crying out loud.