The White House is clearly worried about the opponents of its health-care plan who are showing up at town-hall meetings with members of Congress. Yesterday, it took the extraordinary step of issuing a three-minute video rebuttal to a Drudge Report item that featured a 2007 clip of Barack Obama supporting the "elimination" of private health insurance over time after a government plan is introduced.
Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the health-care protesters a form of "manufactured" anger. Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse went further and called them "angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists."
Administration supporters on cable TV shows were a little more subtle. Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball" dismissed the protesters as "well-dressed middle-class people in pinks and limes . . . Brooks Brothers Brigade." He dismissed them as stooges for the health-care industry. His guest, California Senator Barbara Boxer, agreed with him and urged "you in the media to take a look at what's going on here. This is all planned. It's to hurt our president and it's to change the Congress."
The administration continues to rebut the arguments against its health-care plan, but it seems to be spending as much time attacking the motives and character of its opponents. Anyone in politics will tell you that's a sign of someone playing a losing hand.
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