In the running for today's Crap Disguised As Journalism award, is this load of false equivalence from Politico:
Town hall trouble from both sides now
To watch the news, the only grass-roots action in the health care debate involves opponents shouting down Democrats at town halls and grocery stores.
But Democrats — especially those who have expressed anything less than full-blown support for the legislation before Congress — are getting back-home pressure from the left, too.
It’s just usually a bit more civil.
On Tuesday, about two dozen activists gathered in front of Democratic Rep. Eric Massa’s office in Pittsford, N.Y., to deliver close to 5,000 petitions from New York voters urging him to support the House health care bill.
Delivering a petition? Obviously America-hating anarchists. But not only are they delivering petitions, some even plan to run ads, have volunteers go door-to-door, or phone-bank in an effort to advocate their position on health care reform.
So clearly, it is perfectly legitimate to compare them to:
... the group of Tea Baggers who hanged an effigy of Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) from a noose in front of his district office a few weeks ago. Then there was the case yesterday where a few folks at a tea bag protest outside a townhall meeting in Hartford called on Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) to commit suicide as a way to cure his recently diagnosed prostate cancer. And even though it lacked any clear appeal to the murder of public officials or even a good suicide joke, I'm still pretty fond of this case on Tuesday where the head of the local Tea Party group up in Rome, New York just started yelling 'liar' over and over at a clearly befuddled and caught off guard Steny Hoyer.
... and the many other incidents of right-wing performance art, brought to you courtesy of the lobbyist-run teabaggers.
But hey, at least our side is credited with being "a bit more civil" than this: