That's Gawker's John Cook in front of Jesse Watter's Long Island home. You know Jesse. He's Bill O'Reilly's evil minion/stooge/flunkie who dutifully goes out and stalks,...er, ambushes such evil-doers of BilloWorld™ such as Bill Moyers, Amanda Terkel, Russell Tice, Rep. Robert Wexler, among others.

So Gawker decided to give Jesse a little taste of his own medicine. Surprise, surprise! Jesse doesn't seem to appreciate his own tactics being turned on him:

Watters makes a living startling enemies of his boss Bill O with a video camera and coming back with embarrassing footage that O'Reilly pretends is "news." But in an act of pure weeniness Watters refuses to discuss his work with anyone. We thought we had a good chance of finding him leaving his house for the office this morning, but not everyone can be a stalker extraordinaire like Watters.

A tipster has passed on info (or misinformation!) from a source inside Fox that says Watters is at his desk, and that his wife—a Gawker fan, according to a different tipster—is quite worked up over the visit.

Our team learned some valuable lessons: 1) a stakeout's best done on an empty bladder and 2) be sure to cover all possible exits. (If he's not still at home, we think he either slipped out when John and Richard went to the loo, or walked out a back way to the nearby train station.) Rookie mistakes happen. And, Jesse, your taunts only make us more determined. (Video available at Gawker site)

Aww....poor widdle Jesse. Those meanies at Gawker have him skulking and hiding like a frightened little kitten. How dare they show him what it's like to be ambushed. The nerve!

But Jesse, honey, you ain't seen nothing yet. We know you're going to be at Netroots Nation this August, no doubt hoping to find that proof of marching orders from George Soros. There's a whole bunch of us who will be there too--including John Amato--and just know, we're looking for you too.

You Tube

On Hardball while discussing the aid for family planning included in the stimulus package, Chris Matthews says that government support for family planning "sounds like China" to him. Robert Wexler attempts to reason with him and explains that proper funding and education in this area actually increases people's choices and ultimately reduces medical costs. Rough transcript:

Gingrey:...I mean we're throwing away, gosh I think that there's two hundred million dollars in there for family planning and contraceptives. Now indeed that may stimulate something but I don't think it's going to stimulate the economy.

Matthews: Well Congressman Wexler why isn't it just, why isn't it just what we thought it was going to be...infrastructure, roads, bridges, stuff that everybody agrees on needs to be fixed and creates real jobs for real people that pay decent salaries. Why don't we spend all the money on that stuff that people can see rather than all these odds and ends and cats and dogs? I mean the bill has so much in it you think it's just a shopping list of the Democratic party. That's what it looks like.

Wexler: No. No.

Matthews: Everybody that wants something has something in here.

Wexler: No what the Obama administration is arguing, and I believe they're correct is that three quarters of the money spent in this stimulus package will be out into the economy in eighteen months and I realize it's easy to find one item or this item but even, let's talk about that family planning. Family planning saves if done correctly an enormous sum of money down the road in the health care system. But back to your original point. Most of the money goes to building roads, bridges, infrastructure projects like my friend Mr. Gingrey said. As the states will have designed them and local governments as well will have designated them.

Also in terms of building schools. We desperately need to upgrade our education systems. We have enormous amount of resources devoted towards construction projects and public education as we do in terms of alternative energy sources. We are going to invest enormous sums of money in creating green jobs which have the benefit of employment increases as well as leaving our dependence on foreign oil. This is exactly what the country needs combined with three hundred billion dollars plus of tax cuts which affect ninety five percent positively of the American family base.

Matthews: I don't know. It sounds a little like China. I, Congressman Gingrey I think everybody should have family planning. Everybody believes in birth control as a right. I'm for abortion as a right and all that. It's all right. But why should the federal government have a policy of reducing the number of births? I don't know why the federal government has an interest in that. They have an interest in freedom and people making choices but I just heard a case made by Congressman Wexler that it was in the national interest to have fewer kids. I don't understand that. (crosstalk) What did you mean by that? What did you mean by that? Why is it an economic stimulus...why are we talking about family planning as an economic stimulus program...(crosstalk).

[...]

Wexler: Chris you are right family planning is a personal choice and in order to make personal choices people need to have both education and resources. And when they lack an education or know how or resources in effect then they're choice is negated. And in terms from an economic analysis to give people choices that in some instances based on personal choice will reduce health care costs in the future, that of course then reduces the burden on federal tax payers. This is not a new concept. This is what we run the government on. If we can reduce Medicaid expenditures by giving people more knowledge and choice and resources I think most people regardless of their ideology would say that's a good economic decision.

BillO's peeps sandbag Rep. Wexler. Nice going Bill. Not everyone can handle it like Bill Moyers.

Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Bill W)

BillO's act of sandbagging people with a camera crew who he disagrees with where they live is unseemly. He's such a frustrated man that he has to harass them with the Jesse Watters type idiots if they won't appear on his show. I think it's about time a group of people count up all of these BillO stakeouts and then camp out at his house, cameras in hand and stay there while O'Reilly comes home and jump out of the bushes and ask him about Andrea Mackris and Shawn Hornbeck until he gives up this farce. Let's see how you like it, Bill.

He really has crossed the line.

Here's my complete guide for all those that might have occasion to combat this jackass:

The Complete Guide on How to Deal with Bill O’Reilly’s ambush producers

Robert Wexler is a surrogate that Barack Obama should be grateful to have on his team. The Florida Congressman squared off against Republican Eric Cantor yesterday on "Late Edition" and did what every surrogate should do whenever the issue of campaign finance comes up; namely point out that John McCain is breaking his own campaign finance laws as we speak.

Download | play   Download | play  

CNN:

And one other thing -- Senator McCain's not in the position to speak about this. He used his public financing as collateral to get a loan, and then, low and behold, he didn't use it, and he broke the law.

I didn't watch all the Sunday news shows last week, but I'm pretty sure Wexler was the only person -- surrogate or otherwise -- to make the observation that John McCain has absolutely no standing to lecture others on "failing to keep their word" on the issue of campaign finance reform. Why Democratic spokespeople aren't on top of this talking point is beyond me.

c/o The Politico

Rep. Robert Wexler is still working towards getting hearings started for VP Dick Cheney.  I don't think I'm violating any confidences to say that the support he's seen from the netroots has been really stunning to him.  We have close to 200,000 signatures at WexlerWantsHearings.com and now he's looking for some of his fellow Congresspeople to join him in calling for hearings.  Rep. Wexler sent this to C&L:

In our efforts to push for hearings on Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment for Dick Cheney, we have run into a number of different obstacles.  Some of them , naturally, relate to the debate within my party as to the need for Impeachment and/or its effect on the agenda. 

While I have been making my case for impeachment hearings to my colleagues (and will do so on the House floor this evening) and disagree with those opposing them, there is at least a rationale for the debate on either side.

The virtual media blackout, however, has no rationale.  I am perplexed and dismayed at the fact that - with so much at stake - the mainstream media still largely continues to ignore this movement.  Few papers in the country have reported on it.  Few columnists have acknowledged it.

I understand that some in the media feel this movement will fail - but when three, and now four, Judiciary Committee members call for impeachment... that should at least warrant space at some point over four weeks.

Without public reaction, however, there is little incentive for the media to change its ways.   I urge all of you to continue to put pressure on national and local media alike to give attention to this movement.  The Netroots has been critical in the outreach effort.  I hope that continues over the coming days.

If you haven't already signed on to www.WexlerWantsHearings.com, please do so.

Congressman Robert Wexler

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