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Whatever

Whatever

by digby

Did I mention that they were a little bit on the slow side?

People with ties to Glenn Beck’s 9-12 Project, Tea Party Boise and other conservative causes plan a protest outside Rep. Walt Minnick’s office this weekend, with the claim that the Idaho Democrat co-sponsored one of the health care bills that Congress is considering.

Their assertion is untrue, however; Minnick never sponsored such legislation…

The Republican National Committee, which suggested Thursday that McClatchy look into the story, admitted that its research was inaccurate.

“We are completely wrong, and I apologize,” RNC spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Friday.

[…]

Minnick said he was disappointed that people would knowingly misrepresent his position, even though it was clear that he and the others weren’t co-sponsors of health care legislation.

“They’re using that as a way to misrepresent my position on a very important bill,” he said. “I resent it and I think it’s unethical and I think it’s deliberate.”

The rumor took on a life of its own in Idaho’s conservative circles this week, after Bill Turner of Nampa, Idaho, was looking at the legislation and started writing about it. Turner, a blogger and political activist who describes himself as an “angry American” and is active on right-wing, anti-government Web sites, sent an e-mail to the Idaho Republican Party. In it, he suggested that Minnick had sponsored health care legislation, and he sent a link to the bill’s history on Thomas.gov.

Jonathan Parker, the Idaho GOP’s executive director, is on Turner’s e-mail list, and he was intrigued. He passed the information on to researchers at the Republican National Committee.

“I asked if there was any truth to this,” Parker said. “I asked if they wouldn’t mind looking into it.”

Although the RNC and Parker now accept the explanation for why Minnick’s name is listed as a co-sponsor on the health care bill, Turner does not.

While Turner has written a letter to The Idaho Statesman supportive of another candidate for Minnick’s seat, Republican state Rep. Raul Labrador, Turner said that he had “no hidden agenda” in talking about Minnick and health care.

He said that Saturday’s protest outside Minnick’s office in Meridian, Idaho, would be a combination of people with multiple ties to groups such as Tea Party Boise and those who were active on the conservative Web site AnyStreet.org.

It also will include people connected to the 9-12 Project Idaho, an offshoot of the national movement started by Beck, a Fox News commentator. They are “a bunch of angry citizens,” Turner said, adding in an e-mail later that they intend on Saturday to be “militant.”

Hey these right wingers created this monster. Now they have to live with the consequences. These people have no relationship with “truth” or “reason.” They are pure id. And they can turn on their wingnut masters as easily as the so-called socialists. They don’t know the difference.

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