When the "manufactured" outrage the Left is trying to demonize lines up so inconveniently with public polling, it's sometimes necessary to create evidence for the "manufactured" storyline.
Enter Think Progress, which unearthed this shocking, secret memo from the leader of a small grassroots conservative organization in Connecticut, which allegedly instructs members on "infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress."
Right Principles PAC was formed by Bob MacGuffie and four friends in 2008, and has taken in a whopping $5,017 and disbursed $1,777, according to its FEC filing.
"We're just trying to shake this state up and make a difference up here," MacGuffie told me during a telephone interview. He's surprised at his elevation to national rabble-rouser by the Left.
That last link doesn't work, by the way. Apparently, you can't link to the FEC's search results. If you run "Right Principles PAC" through the search engine for the year 2009-10, you'll see the info's true enough. But run it through for 2008 and you get nothing. So a right wing PAC pops up overnight and spends just enough money to set up an office. Then it gets right to work on a memo telling people how to disrupt town hall meetings.
According to Ham, this memo was then sent to pretty much no one. "Right Principles has a Facebook group with 23 members and a Twitter account with five followers," she writes. "MacGuffie describes himself as an 'opponent of leftist thinking in America,' and told me he's 'never pulled a lever' for a Republican or Democrat on a federal level. Yet this Connecticut libertarian's influence over a national, orchestrated Republican health-care push-back is strong, indeed, if you listen to liberal pundits and the Democratic National Committee, who have crafted a nefarious web out of refutable evidence."
Despite the lack of interest, Right Principles has managed to pull in five grand this year. I've got more Twitter followers and more Facebook friends than he has, so quick, someone send me $5,000 for my newly invented political action committee. This is like a shell corporation -- it exists to hide the people behind it.
If you still have doubts, Right Wing Watch reported today that Bob MacGuffie was interviewed on Alan Colmes' radio show. In the interview, MacGuffie defended the memo and the resulting town hall meeting chaos, saying that the wingnuts were "not terribly disruptive" and that the mobs were necessary because Democrats "have gotten away with their phony town halls for too long" where they have been allowed to spew their "lies, deceit, and misrepresentation."
MacGuffie insisted that his goal is merely to get people to ask Representatives questions and hold them accountable, but when Colmes pointed out that urging people shout out and disrupt the event does not generally lead to a fruitful exchange of views, MacGuffie's response was that "well, hey, passions run deep."
It doesn't really read like someone who's denying any responsibility for this stuff. What's happening is that the right is finding this thing getting away from them -- just as the tea parties and McCain/Palin rallies did -- and they want to change the narrative before the inevitable happens. It's not their fault, it's those lying lefty blogs and MSNBC making stuff up. This whole thing is just crazy people being crazy.
