Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson just can’t get her story straight.
When news of her campaign’s connections with a rally that featured posters depicting Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Halvorson’s GOP challenger Adam Kinzinger with Adolph Hitler moustaches surfaced on Thurs. Sept. 16th, her campaign went into immediate denial mode.
Campaign spokesman Anthony DeAngelo told the Southland Star that the Halvorson campaign did not stage any protest outside an Americans For Prosperity event in Joliet, IL on the night in question. “Obviously, the congresswoman would never condone anyone comparing Kinzinger or any candidate to Hitler” DeAngelo said. Perhaps, but does that go for the congresswoman’s campaign workers? More on that later.
When Big Government showed video evidence that several members of the protest returned to Halvorson Campaign Headquarters as soon as the protest disbanded, it was time for another denial. This time it was a bit more creative: “Some of the protesters stopped by the Illinois Victory office after the protest to say hello and get some water,” reported the Illinois political blog CapitolFaxBlog.
So, the story from the Halvorson campaign is that they did not stage any protest, would never condone Hitler posters and the folks who stopped by their campaign office after the rally were protesters getting water and saying “hi”. At least, that was their story right up until Sunday afternoon when a new version of events appeared at Media Matters.
Ironically, in a post intended to debunk Big Government’s story, the Halvorson campaign went on the record (at a left-wing site no less) disclosing more information than before about this protest they had nothing to do with. Campaign Director Julie Merz now tells Media Matters that Halvorson’s campaign had nothing to do with the signs, but, it turns out the protest is another matter:
Merz tells Media Matters that several staffers for the Illinois Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign held a rally protesting both the AFP event and what she called Kinzinger’s support for outsourcing. Indeed, the video shows one of the protestors who later returned to the Democratic headquarters leading a chant of “outsource Adam, not our jobs.”
This story began merely as an example of the double standard that exists for all political groups except the Tea Party. And the double standard was re-emphasized by Media Matters in their apologia for the Halvorson campaign. They actually defend the campaign by maintaining that the Palin and Beck as Hitler posters were brought by an individual not affiliated with the campaign therefore the campaign should not be held responsible or accountable for the posters. Isn’t that exactly what the Tea Party organizers have been saying for the past year about the occasional obnoxious sign discovered at their rallys? And has Media Matters or the NAACP or Think Progress ever accepted that defense? Go to TeaPartyTracker.org for your answer.
But now this story is much bigger. It has turned into a serious case of misleading obfuscation if not outright lies from the Halvorson campaign.
The protest that Halvorson’s campaign had nothing to do with was organized by the Illinois Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign? That organization, as the name would suggest, is a coordinated effort of the various Democratic campaigns in the State of Illinois, including the Halvorson campaign.
Welcome to the complex shell-game that is today’s Democratic Party.
By creating entities that all work in conjunction with each other, trade staff back and forth, do each other’s dirty work and work hand-in-hand with big labor, the organized left have created a smoke screen of deception over their daily practices. This way, offensive, coordinated, astro-turf protests can “organically sprout up” without any one candidate’s finger prints being on them.
We first noticed this when dissecting what happened to Kenneth Gladney at a Town Hall meeting on ObamaCare in St. Louis last year. We discovered that the SEIU, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), ACORN, Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee were all working with each other, planning events with each other, donating funds to each other, trading staff with each other and, in the case of Kenneth Gladney, intimidating opposition on behalf of the party. But, the efforts appear so far removed due to the elaborate structure of the organizations involved, they allow plausible deniability for candidates and elected officials.
We saw this again earlier this year in Searchlight NV. When the Tea Party arrived in Sen. Harry Reid’s home town for a rally, members of the local IBEW showed up with signs mis-directing traffic, heckling protesters and even throwing eggs at the bus carrying tea party members. Again, we start to delve into who the individuals were at the scene and captured on video and we discovered that they were not only the leaders of the union, the guy calling the shots and lying to police on the scene was Brian Dimarzio, Field Director for the Nevada Democratic Party.
Same pattern:
- State party coordination
- Big labor
- Noisy protest
- Rehearsed chants
- Offensive behavior
- The actual activity is at least an arms-length away from a local politician who directly benefits from the activity
We even saw it this past weekend outside the Sears Center in Chicago. A “prayer group” showed up in buses to protest the crowd gathering for the Right Nation Conference. They carried signs with either the same phrase, or slight variations, drawn with the same three colored markers. When asked by Andrew Breitbart what they were protesting, they had no answers. When asked their affiliation, many remained silent, one acknowledged that they were coordinated by OFA.
[youtube 1Xmam9dmzc4]
More questions from Breitbart illicited taunts of “Homosexual” and even spitting. As he continued to engage them in conversation, coordinators came to the stray sheep and herded them back away from the single, intimidating figure of Breitbart. As they handed in their signs and American flags and boarded the bus some shouted “SEIU!!!”.
Carnahan’s Town Hall with Gladney getting accosted, Searchlight NV with the egg throwing, Chicago with the spitting… meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
But, with the Palin-as-Hitler rally, the usual arms-length diversion that absolves candidates from any direct link has broken down a bit. No one accused the Halvorson campaign of printing, distributing or holding the signs, we were righteously indignant that people affiliated with her campaign would stand idly by and lead protesters who were holding such signs. And we called on the Democratic Party leadership to repudiate the behavior of the individuals involved in this offensive behavior, after all, this is the new standard created by the left led by the NAACP, is it not. We had no idea that the Halvorson campaign would continue to attempt to mis-lead and say they had nothing to do with the protest itself.
But, they did.
Meet Anna Markowski.
She first hit the scene as a Deputy Regional Field Director for the Obama for President Campaign. After President Obama was elected, the Obama Campaign infrastructure was transformed into Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee. With OFA, Anna Markowski was a busy staffer in St. Louis. Here she is at the exact same health care town hall meeting that ended with Kenneth Gladney lying on the pavement writhing in pain.
And now, here is Anna Markowski, about fifteen feet from the Palin-Hitler sign, benignly smiling and participating in the rally.
So, when the Halvorson campaign says the rally was the product of the Illinois Democratic Party Coordinating Committee and the folks who came into their headquarters after the rally were just protestors getting water, they can’t possibly overlook the fact that in April of this year, Markowski was redirected from OFA to work on the Halvorson campaign.
In an obscure article at Hotline Oncall the staff transfers were described as a reward for votes on ObamaCare:
“Several staffers once with Organizing for America, Pres. Obama’s political wing, have left in recent weeks to hit the trail, sources tell Hotline OnCall.
Reps. Betsy Markey (D-CO) and Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) recently picked up OFA staffers…
…OFA mounted a major push to get wavering members of Congress to vote in favor of health care legislation, an effort that some credit with helping persuade a sufficient number of members to vote for the bill. Now, an OFA official said, the members who voted in favor of the bill have been rewarded. “
One of the comments on the article states: “Debbie Halvorson, a rising star, got a real catch in OFA’s Anna Markowski.”
So, Anna Markowski went to the Halvorson campaign from OFA in April. She is captured on video participating in a protest with no sign of consternation or outrage that someone would have a Palin-as-Hitler poster (we always thought that not condemning such behavior is the same as condoning it, right?). And later she returns to the Halvorson campaign headquarters. And the Halvorson campaign continues to maintain they had nothing to do with the protest and that the people in their office were just stopping to say “hi” and get some water.
It’s time for the Halvorson campaign to come clean with the people of the 11th District in Illinois and stop the obfuscation and word-games. Who were the people in the headquarters that night? Who do they work for? What affiliation do they have with the Halvorson campaign? And why did they continue their protest as those offensive signs were held up and passed around?
We eagerly await statement #4 from the Halvorson campaign. Perhaps this time, Rep. Halvorson herself will make the statement instead of continuing to rely on her clearly befuddled staff.
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