At the Capitol Hill rally against nationalized health care on Thursday, talk-radio host and author Mark Levin talked to the press: "These are citizen patriots out here, and I’m tired of them being smeared." Some didn’t get the message. In Friday’s Washington Post, columnist Dana Milbank played the usual game of quoting the wackiest signs and smearing thousands of people with them.
His column’s title was "No one said freedom was pretty." On the homepage of the Post website, it said: "Milbank: Michele Bachmann's anti-health reform event brings out the party of no taste." Here’s a sample of Milbank’s account:
In the front of the protest, a sign showed President Obama in white coat, his face painted to look like the Joker. The sign, visible to the lawmakers as they looked into the cameras, carried a plea to "Stop Obamunism." A few steps farther was the guy holding a sign announcing "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" [sic], accusing Obama of being part of a Jewish plot to introduce the antichrist.
But the best of Bachmann's recruits were a few rows into the crowd, holding aloft a pair of 5-by-8-foot banners proclaiming "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945." Both banners showed close-up photographs of Holocaust victims, many of them children....
"Who knew a casual comment on TV could generate this?" Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.) exulted as he stood in front of the Dachau banner.
Now, objecting to the health-care bill is one thing. But doesn't it send the wrong message for House Republicans to hold an event on the Capitol grounds full of hateful and gruesome words and images?
Milbank singled out anti-abortion protests with their bloody-fetus references. Question to Milbank: if abortion images are gruesome, aren’t pro-abortion policies the accomplishment of those gruesome images?
A week ago, Democrats had a tiny health-care rally on the Hill. Milbank also chronicled that one wearing his typical jester’s hat. But once again, he was upset at the tastelessness of anti-abortion protesters:
But for all the precautions, policy pep rallies have a way of taking unwanted turns, and Thursday's did so almost immediately after Pelosi stepped to the microphone. "Nancy Pelosi, you'll burn in hell for this," said a voice, amplified by a bullhorn, from about 50 yards away.
"Thank you, insurance companies of America," Pelosi replied to the man. Actually, they were abortion protesters, and they were loud.
"In this legislation, we will immediately begin to close the doughnut hole," the speaker proclaimed.
"We won't pay for murder!" a heckler heckled.
"Prevention and wellness are an important part of this legislation," the speaker declared.
"We won't pay for murder!" the heckler repeated. Finally, police were able to silence the activists, who held a gruesome poster showing an aborted fetus and signs demanding "Kill the bill."
Milbank pointed out that this rally had almost no attendance, aside from a smattering of Hill staffers. But at this one, Milbank’s incessant snarkiness broke, and he was moved:
Still, there were moving moments, as when Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio) spoke of her battle with multiple sclerosis. And Rep. John Dingell (Mich.), who succeeded his father in Congress in 1955, recalled the birth of Medicare in 1965.
"I did have the privilege of sitting in the chair when we passed Medicare," he said, and "I used this here gavel to preside over the House." The audience gave a hearty cheer this time when he held up the instrument. "And I'm going to lend it to whoever it is who gets to preside over this legislation, because a good piece of wood doesn't wear out with one great event."
It was a powerful image.
The only thing that ruined the liberal-Democrat nostalgia for him was U2 background music.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.




















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Comments Policy
When so many people get
November 6, 2009 - 08:40 ET by G. MayWhen so many people get their news and political commentary from comedians and entertainers, there's no wonder guys like this dress up like clowns.
Will Milbank decry?
November 6, 2009 - 08:48 ET by allanfI could go on and on. Milbank feigns a state of high dudgeon when its suits his leftist aims.
Great Event?
November 6, 2009 - 08:49 ET by karelingDingell sez:
"I did have the privilege of sitting in the chair when we passed Medicare," he said, and "I used this here gavel to preside over the House." The audience gave a hearty cheer this time when he held up the instrument. "And I'm going to lend it to whoever it is who gets to preside over this legislation, because a good piece of wood doesn't wear out with one great event."
This is liberals' idea of a great event. Not the moon landing, not the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism, but the enactment of yet another government program.
What will remain unspoken
November 6, 2009 - 08:51 ET by BDWhat will remain unspoken by the press is:
After all, most of the Tea Partiers bathed in the past couple of days. I assume most of the Anti-war protestors bathed in the past year or at least were hit by water cannon at an anti-globalization rally.
I think an intersting statistic would be a comparative count between the two population bases of:
The list could go on and on and be farily indicative of the crowds. But the press will never cover that.
BD...
November 6, 2009 - 09:19 ET by adamsmithAll excellent points BD. I used to think the press held people ignorant by glossing over things like that. With Fox News, I think 25% of their viewership is liberal. They're eventually going to understand how biased anything else really is. I remember reading some comments over on ZsaZsa's Snuffington Post where some moonbat was extolling Olbergoebbels as the man that spoke "truth to power". Yeah, Olby tells the truth alright, the half that makes his point and the other half putting things in context and reporting correctly gets shot down the memory hole...
In Milbanks's world, protest is only acceptable by the left.....
November 6, 2009 - 09:04 ET by jondelwicheThe RNC violent protests in St Paul, hey, the Republicans probably deserved that, right?
Bachmann wants media to investigate anti-American behavior of congress=awful.
Kuccinich and Ellison file real impeachment motions, well that is peachy in our media because "it's deserved"
etc etc etc etc etc
Nov 2010 is coming, and the failing old media cant stop that one.
Was Milbank also filing in potholes?
November 6, 2009 - 09:08 ET by SickofLibsWTH is he wearing?
Typical lib - whining about having to be confronted by photos of aborted fetuses. But hey, I'm sure they were all aborted due to incest or whatever.
Sick of Libs
November 6, 2009 - 09:30 ET by HoosierEmI think Dana Milbank was dressed that way because he was on his way to serve his community service hours for being a dolt.
Dana Milbank: "Finally,
November 6, 2009 - 09:09 ET by TEDana Milbank: "Finally, police were able to silence the activists, who held a gruesome poster showing an aborted fetus ...."
Abortion enthusiasts like Dana Milbank love and promote abortion as their most holy religious sacrament but consider a poster demonstrating their most holy religious sacrament to be "gruesome". Milbank and his fellow leftists are some twisted, sick fanatics ....
Well it's not "gruesome" if
November 6, 2009 - 09:22 ET by motherbeltWell it's not "gruesome" if you can't see it.
Which is why they want women "shielded" from the actual results.
Because if they knew, they would either decide not to abort, or would suffer from guilt for aborting.
Can't have either of the those things, you know.
They can give lipservice by pretending to care and saying that abortion is a tragedy, but it's beyond the pale for someone to actually show that tragedy.
Neat and Tidy
November 6, 2009 - 14:24 ET by AbraxosThe Planned Parenthood manager who recently resigned after seeing an ultra-sound abortion is evidence to me that most pro-abort's really don't know how gruesome an abortion is.
They seem to believe that because it's done in a clinic by a medical doctor, it's a neat and tidy procedure wherein some small bit of undesired protoplasm is carefully removed from the woman, much like a splinter being removed from a toe or finger. The media is outraged that it's shown as it is?
Showing abortions as they really are is the best weapon against the abortion industry, and the sooner pro-life advocates take off their PC gloves and shove the bloody, dismembered children into their faces, the sooner abortion will be outlawed in America.
Amen to that! 'Doubling
November 6, 2009 - 14:32 ET by bigtimerAmen to that!
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Dana Milbank..
November 6, 2009 - 09:13 ET by adamsmithDana Milbank is not a journalist nor does he have any credibility. He's just another lefty talking head on MSLSD, which means with their ratings no one knows who he is anyway...I'd like to see him debate someone like Mark Levin, you know, somebody with a brain and independent thought.....
Milbank is a tool...
November 6, 2009 - 09:31 ET by motherbelt..proven by his actions in the Cheney situation pictured above.
Does anyone think he would have ridiculed the famous John "Kin Ah git me a hunt'n' license?" Kerry in similar circumstances?
No class. All A$$. -My mother
That he saw that accident as nothing more than a reason to ridicule the President shows the depth of his depravity.
He has zero qualifications to be taken seriously. On anything.
Hey Libs, want to see what
November 6, 2009 - 09:25 ET by bse5150Hey Libs, want to see what 'NO TASTE' is like?
How about 10.2% unemployment figures today! And that's just what the 'official numbers' are quoting!
Hope and Change!
Chenys Got A Gun!!
November 6, 2009 - 09:30 ET by NortoWhat is that line under his photo?
Is that a real question?
November 6, 2009 - 09:32 ET by motherbeltIs that a real question? Because I don't want to be replying if you are joking.
Dana Milbank, Dana Milbank...
November 6, 2009 - 09:38 ET by StarAZI used to watch that channel and do remember him vaguely--did he used to be a reporter? By the way, they had a fistfight between eds at the Washington Post the other day...getting tense over there, I guess. One editor said another's reporter had written crap...imagine that. Bing! Pow!
This helps confirm the
November 6, 2009 - 11:11 ET by Chris NormanThis helps confirm the suspicion that when you boil down liberalism, you're left with just snobbism - that elitist disdain for the middle class and all their values and preferences. To mock and smirk at the middle class is to confirm to other pretentious self deluded liberals that one is a "sophisticated" elitist also.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Chris... Exactly
November 6, 2009 - 13:02 ET by bigtimerChris...
Exactly right...
As far as I'm concerned let them keep it up, this is angering Americans out here by the thousands daily, which will keep the pot stewing until about a year from now.
As much as I despise them all, get angry myself at times, I know this is going to backfire on all of them and their pretentiousness...their elite bubble is going to burst...I can't wait to watch them fall.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
gruesome pictures
November 6, 2009 - 11:24 ET by Candance MooreThere are two things liberals dislike the most:
-being quoted in their own words.
-seeing photos of the actual things they legislate.
I would also add...
November 6, 2009 - 11:46 ET by stage9- They hate the truth
- They hate the Judeo/Christian God
- They hate counterperspectives and resistence to their agnedas
- They hate having their logic used against them
- They hate morality
- They hate beauty
- They hate America
- They hate the Constitution
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will
be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for
pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner."
— Malcolm Muggeridge
Payback Can Be Fun To Watch
November 6, 2009 - 11:49 ET by rammingspeedI just feel good that there's so much reaction against Millbank on this site and elsewhere. Not long ago, his would have been the only voice available for public consumption. Now, places like NB are blowing him out of the water. The proliferation of balanced information on the 'Net and AM radio is the reason there were 10,000 protesters in D.C. It's hammering the Democratic party. They did not see this coming, and it's fun to watch them stagger and flail back with weak punches.
They so have this coming.
From a paper nobody reads--
November 6, 2009 - 14:11 ET by carolina09To a network nobody watches.
Milbank: 21st Century Loyalist
November 6, 2009 - 14:47 ET by CajunI keep flipping between being amused, then angered, then fearful when I see such open contempt for those using the freedoms, fought and died for, by American colonists 233 years ago. From a Proclamation by King George III to the American Patriots in 1775 "...to issue our Royal Proclamation, hereby declaring, that not only all our Officers, civil and military, are obliged to exert their utmost endeavours to suppress such rebellion, and to bring the traitors to justice, but that all our subjects of this Realm, and the dominions thereunto belonging, are bound by law to be aiding and assisting in the suppression of such rebellion, and to disclose and make known all traitorous conspiracies and attempts against us, our crown and dignity; and we do accordingly strictly charge and command all our Officers, as well civil as military, and all others our obedient and loyal subjects, to use their utmost endeavours to withstand and suppress such rebellion, and to disclose and make known all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which they shall know to be against us, our crown and dignity..."
How about some 1948 Hateful
November 6, 2009 - 16:08 ET by wolfemanicHow about some 1948 Hateful and Gruesome .....
http://nationaljugge...
Milbank
November 6, 2009 - 18:40 ET by cajun2Patriotic Americans, exercising their right of free speech and desire to have a voice are labeled hateful and gruesome. For that comment alone, Milbank, you have earned the foul #11 in The Sty of Useful Idiots.
Mark Levin invited the creep Milbank to call into his show.
November 6, 2009 - 21:07 ET by jawebster1Of course he is too cowardly to do so. He only shows up on programs that agree with his own ultra far left and twisted ideology and that's why he gets along so well with the equally twisted Keith Olbermann. Twisted sisters? Jim Webster
Am I The Only One Who Thinks That Both Sides Are Tasteless?
November 7, 2009 - 01:17 ET by The7SticksAs I've said repeatedly, I don't understand what liberals or conservatives think they are accomplishing in these ridiculous protests. Of course, if conservative weren't protesting on 11/05, liberals would have since it's Guy Fawkes Day. You know, "Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot; I know no reason, the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot?" They probably would be running around in their Guy Fawkes masks and Yoko Ono wigs committing anarchy. Eh, same difference.
7, Don't much care what the lefties are protesting...
November 7, 2009 - 01:30 ET by R D Helm...as they are a lost cause.
As for conservatives, we are protesting the rape of our country by the aforementioned lefties, who have been working to diminish and ultimately destroy the principles (not to mention the freedoms this nation was founded upon) for the last 100+ years, and are damn close to succeeding in their endeavor.
To this point, we have elected to peacefully convey our displeasure merely with signs and T-shirts.
Not all that sure that will hold the next time.
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.