Michael Steele and his peeps at the RNC were being deluged with calls from the DNC ad over the angry mobs they are sending to disrupt the health care town halls so they did what every conservative hatchet man would do. They re-routed the calls...

"The DNC released a Web video early in the morning accusing the GOP of inciting mob activity at town hall meetings. At the end of the video, the DNC instructs people to call the Republican National Committee to express outrage. Callers who dial the RNC's main number to voice their concern about the DNC's charges are told to press 1, which sends them to the DNC's main switchboard."

This is a Karl Rove move for sure. I think this is going to ignite a very dirty war between the two groups.

The RNC redirected these calls from its main switchboard over to the DNC’s switchboard — a response, said Steele, to the White House arrogantly blaming regular Americans “like my mother, like my sister” for the health care impasse.

“I thought it was a good idea,” Steele said. “Don’t sit there and think you’re going to direct a bunch of angry liberals to call the RNC when I know full well what that’s all about. I get the joke. My response was, talk to your own party, because they’re the ones ginning this up.”

Most of America is upset by our health care system, but the right is bent on destroying reform, so they are astroturfing the town halls.

HCAN has some tips on how to combat these Zombie Plumbers if you got to an event. And don't forget to send me a video of your experience.
HCAN

We are closer to passing health care reform than we've ever been in the history of this country, and the opposition knows it. The small, lobbyist-funded right-wing is trying to scare Members of Congress and the American public away from supporting health care reform. We can't let fear win - America has been at the mercy of the insurance industry from too long. We need health care reform now, and we can't wait any longer.

You can help fight back against these right-wing disrupters. Follow the steps below to attend events in your area and get trained on how to deal with disruptions, intimidation, and name-calling at the events...read on

Here's the RNC number 202-863-8500. Please call early and often.
DKos diary has more:

H/T to teaharper below for pointing me to this comment from PSax in a related diary:

I did what I normally never do, and called the RNC number. They're pretty tricky at the RNC - there's an option to respond to the DNC ad, which routes you back to the DNC. Very slick. So I got in touch with the DNC, and they said to make sure I press OPTION 2 (this goes for you too, if you plan to call). So, I called the RNC back, pressed option 2, and actually got an operator. Sounded like they were being bombarded over there. I said, "I'm calling in response to the DNC ad. I agree with it 100%, and wish the Republicans in Congress and on the streets would engage in actual debate about health care and not resort to mob tactics." The operator's reply was a very curt, "That would be great if we were responsible for it, but we're not," and then she hung up on me.

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Frank Luntz's irony alert button is obviously broken. Luntz is outraged, outraged I tell you that the Democrats would use "poll driven language" to "mislead the American people" on health care reform. Their sin? Pointing out that this is a problem with the insurance industry. What's the matter Frank? Worried someone else is worming their way into your cottage industry? You'd know all about using "poll driven" language to mislead people, wouldn't you?

The DNC has a winner here, going straight for the jugular with these assholes.

"They lost the election. They lost on the Recovery Act, the budget and children's health care," the script reads. "They've lost the confidence of the American people after eight years of failed policies that ruined our economy and cost millions of jobs."

Now, desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs - just like they did during the election. Their goal? Destroy President Obama and stop the change Americans voted for overwhelmingly in November."

(Here's some info on the ads by OFA)

Those poor poor Democrats in Congress who want to block the public option. They can't face the heat so they are whining to Harry Reid. And Reid then scolds the DNC for "wasting their money" on ads that target them.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) slammed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Thursday for running ads designed to pressure centrist Democrats into supporting the president’s healthcare plan, calling the effort a “waste of money.”
Reid’s comments sent his staff into damage control mode, as they sought to clarify his remarks, but also reflect a growing frustration among those centrists who have been reluctant to back a government-run health insurance plan at the center of President Obama’s healthcare proposal. Liberals have been urging centrists to support such a plan for months, using various television and radio campaigns to try to force their hand. This week a wing of the DNC announced it would run television ads in states represented by centrist senators.

Reid slammed the DNC for targeting Democrats instead of Republicans or special interest groups that traditionally oppose Democratic policies.
“I think it’s a waste of money,” Reid said when asked about the ads. “Democrats running ads against Democrats?”

First of all they are not centrist. That's a bogus word to try and muddle the issue. Dems like Blue America's target Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and all the rest are Conservative Dems. Health care is not a right/left issue, but an American issue. Standing in the way of real reform makes one a republican obstructionist at this time and not a centrist. And Harry Reid should be careful who he backs in this fight. These ads came with a blessing from the White House so is he going against the President now? You're supposed to be the majority leader so if they come whining to you again just tell them to act like Democrats.
You can still donate to Blue America's Campaign For Health Care Choice. We're working on our next action and will need your help.

So what's the deal, DNC? What the hell's going on? This is no time to rest on our laurels:

Much attention has been paid to the Democratic political juggernaut, and to the weaknesses of the GOP in general and the RNC in particular.

You wouldn't know it from their respective April fundraising numbers: The RNC outraised the DNC by $1.3 million.

The earlier rationale for the DNC's weak fundraising had been that Governor Kaine was taking care of business in Virginia, but that legislative session ended in February.

The RNC raised $5.4 million in contributions April, giving the committee $24.4 million on hand.

The DNC, in the same month, raised $4.4 million, leaving it with $9.1 million on hand.

Between the President of the United States and his massive list, you'd expect Democrats to have a real advantage in this category, but it hasn't taken hold, at least not yet.

Democrat Scott Murphy wins the race in the congressional district of NY-20 in upstate New York formerly held by Kirsten Gillibrand, now Senator Gillibrand. Republican Jim Tedisco conceded just over three weeks from the election date, down by less than 400 votes of over 160,000 cast with no hope of catching Murphy with only a few hundred absentee ballots left to count.

One well-known local commentator called it a humiliating defeat for Tedisco, who was the State Assembly Minority Leader prior to this election. He was expected to win in a cakewalk against a Murphy who had never run for political office before, but ran a great campaign anyway. The Republicans in general, and RNC chair Michael Steele in particular have egg on their faces over this one.

The DNC has already put up an ad:

GOP: The Party of No.

Open Thread below...

Now this is pretty damn terrible.

Barack Obama is set to host a press conference with incoming Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine on Thursday in what will ostensibly mark the beginning of a new era for the party and the committee.

Noticeably absent from the affair will be the individual who symbolized the old regime.

Former Gov. Howard Dean is not on the list of attendees for the event, a noticeable nonattendance for someone largely credited with revitalizing the Democratic Party ranks and contributing - whether politically or through his 50-State Strategy - to major electoral gains.

It is unclear whether Dean's absence reflects a snub or a scheduling conflict. An Obama transition official said it was their understanding that Dean was traveling. But a source with knowledge of the proceedings said that Dean was not asked to attend and suggested that he would have changed prior plans.

Either way, he's not attending tomorrow's presser when the DNC torch is unofficially passed to Kaine. The Virginia Governor officially takes over the post on January 21.

Howard Dean led the charge on the 50-state strategy that paved the way for Obama to take the election. He was ridiculed by the Beltway weenies and Villagers over it, but he had the last laugh.

He was also the netroots' choice for DNC chair and it worked out brilliantly.

This is interesting: Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean, who was greeted with intense skepticism by the party's big-money donors at the outset of his tenure, appears on track to bring in far more cash this quarter from those top fundraisers than many expected.

I don't know who is at fault here, but this is not cool.
My friend Steve Benen writes:

For what it's worth, I don't think Obama is deliberately snubbing [Dean]. From what I hear, the two get along very well, and Obama has said more than once that Dean's 50-state strategy laid the groundwork for his own bottom-up presidential campaign. For that matter, I can't think of a reason why Tim Kaine would harbor any animosity towards Dean.

So, what explains today's Dean-less event? I'm at a loss.

WaPo:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama's administration even while he finishes his final year in the governor's mansion, several sources said.

Kaine, who emerged as one of Obama's vice presidential finalists this summer, will operate from Richmond in a part-time capacity until January 2010, when he will become the full-time DNC chairman. Kaine is constitutionally barred from running for reelection.

A personal friend of the president-elect, Kaine is a gregarious chief executive who is known to relish political combat and helped put Virginia in the Democratic column for the first time in almost 50 years.

Ugh. After Howard Dean, could we pick a more disappointing choice for DNC head? After all, what the spinally deficient Dems need is a more milquetoasty, against stem cell research, pro-life, anti-gay chairman whose actions speak directly to his callousness towards those less fortunate directing the candidates and elections to help retain the Democratic majority, doncha know?

Democrats, snatching defeat from victory since 1992.

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Howard Dean stops by D.L. Hughley's set and they discuss the success of Dean's fifty state strategy, his leaving as head of the DNC and they joke a bit about Rahm Emanuel getting the Chief of Staff job instead of Dean after all the great work Dean's done to help the party pick up seats.

Che

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Part One: The Argentine written by Peter Buchman and Benjamin A. Van Der Veen
Part Two: Guerrilla written by Peter Buchman

Silence is argument carried out by other means.
Che Guevara

There is a silent fragment of a scene in Guerrilla, the second part of Steven Soderbergh’s epic cinematic experience, Che that is very telling. Che Guevara, portrayed brilliantly by Benicio Del Toro, is trying to motivate a group of reluctant Bolivian peasants to join him in overthrowing their own government, but most of them are not buying it. Mario Monje, portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips, one of only a handful of recognizable actors in this film, has also heard enough politics and leaves. Someone suggests that maybe democracy could work. Silence. In this group is a dead ringer for a young Evo Morales, the indigenous President of Bolivia, who recently won a recall election with 67.4% of the vote.

This is one of the few political messages that Soderbergh leaves even a trace of his own fingerprints on.

Last October, Che’s death was marked, in the Bolivian village where he was killed, by President Morales proclaiming his own political movement to be “100% Guevarist and socialist.”

The CIA may have killed the man, but his ideas have lived on, especially in South America today.

I attended Che-stock (4 ½ hours in length) at its Los Angeles premiere Saturday night at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Red carpet, bright lights, flashing cameras, movie stars – the works. After a short speech by the president of the AFI, Steven Soderbergh spoke to the audience humorously about his non-Che-like ride to the theatre in an Audi (one of the sponsors for the festival). Benicio Del Toro (Best Actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) then spoke briefly and thanked many others, including producer Laura Bickford.

The first part of Che, entitled "The Argentine," is sharp, energetic, visceral and historic. It covers the meeting of the Argentinean doctor Ernesto “Che” Guevara with Fidel Castro as well as, many of the battle scenes and training that provided the framework for the Cuban revolution from 1956-1959 ending with the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

These detailed military actions have very rarely been depicted in dramatic cinema. Here for the first time we see through Soderbergh’s cinéma vérité style what it would have been like for the Fidelistas to liberate village after village while gathering the support they needed to take their revolution into Havana. In December of 1958, we see Che leading his “suicide squad” in the attack on Santa Clara.

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(h/t Politics TV)  Transcripts courtesy of Huffington Post

New Mexico Governor and former presidential contender Bill Richardson throws his support Barack Obama and Joe Biden, subverting the detractors' calls over experience to show that what matters is judgment:

Because at a time when young men and women are dying for our country overseas, America faces a question worthy of silent reflection. And the American people are watching to see how we answer it. What is the best measure of a person's capacity to protect this country? There are often moments of great importance that go unnoticed in the unruly course of history.

And six years ago, there was a moment of great clarity and foresight. And if the world had known to listen, perhaps today there would be less heartache and sorrow. In October 2002, on a small stage before a small crowd, Barack Obama gave a speech that was barely noticed at the time.

In the midst of great fervor-brought about by an administration that questioned the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with it-Barack Obama called the coming war what it was: "a war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics." He was right!

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All I could think as I watched Al Gore speak was "We wuz robbed."  Can you imagine what it would be like now having President Gore passing the torch to Obama?  The mind reels.

Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn't really matter who became President.

Our nation was enjoying peace and prosperity. Some assumed we would continue both no matter the outcome. But here we all are in 2008, and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn't matter.

Take it from me, if it had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued Bin Laden until we captured him.

We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis, we would be fighting for middle income families.

We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution, we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

And we would not be denying the climate crisis, we'd be solving it.

Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be even more obvious now - because John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them, the same policies all over again?

Hey, I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous.

Transcripts below the fold

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I'm still reeling with emotion from watching the whole thing.  How amazing it will be to have a president that inspires such high feelings, instead of inspiring cringes.  We'll get more up later, but this is the first 16 minutes for you. 

UPDATE:  If you'd like to see the whole thing again, here you go.

Transcripts of the whole speech below the fold

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Never let it be said that Republicans and their counterparts in the conservative blogosphere (yes, Ann "I Like To Drink Wine and Blog About American Idol" Althouse, I'm looking right at you) can't attempt to manufacture a scandal out of thin air that shows just how stupid they are. 

The impetus of this scandal is this article from Reuters, which breathlessly described the set for the upcoming speech by Barack Obama at Invesco Stadium as looking like an ancient Greek temple since there will be a series of columns behind from which Obama will appear and then walk onto a raised stage.

So Ann "Liberal Boobies Enrage Me" Althouse whips herself up into a righteous indignation, which is promptly echoed throughout the other sites.  (I won't dignify her with a link, look it up) How dare Obama?  Is he trying to suggest that he's a God or something???  The presumption! Do you see how messianic he is? His supporters are like a cult! (imagine her furious fingers typing away)

But see, here's the problem, Ann.  You clearly haven't traveled.  If you had actually ever gone to the seat of our federal government, Washington DC, guess what you'd see?  Columns!  Know why?  Because most of our federal buildings were designed in an architectural style called...wait for it...Greek Revival.  Which means, you know, lots of columns.  Like the ones in the front and back of the White House--where Obama will reside in January, by the way.  And the ones in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where exactly 45 years ago today, Martin Luther King gave a speech in which he said these words:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

So today, Ann "I'm a law professor, but I don't know how to correctly interpret judges' rulings" Althouse, Barack Obama will take the stage, designed symbolically to be reminiscent of the city from where he will be leading this country, and the site of one of the most stirring orations in our history (is this too nuanced for your conservative brain?), and accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for the Presidency of the United States, having earned that nomination not because of the color of his skin, but because of the content of his character.  It is the fulfillment of that dream  Martin Luther King espoused 45 years ago.  A dream that your conservative compatriots have worked endlessly to suppress.

Doesn't that make your righteous indignation over Greek temples and Greek gods seem just so pathetically ignorant?  By the way, do you have any memory of the stage from which George Bush accepted his nomination? Don't look now, but there were columns!  *gasp!* 

UPDATE:  That presumptuous John McCain! Is he trying to insinuate he's some sort of Greek God? (h/t Aimee)