activist and community organizer Saul Alinsky that we've seen from the likes of Newt Gingrich, I'm glad to see segments like this one start to make their way into our corporate media. Chris Matthews spoke to The Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger and the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet about Gingrich constantly comparing President Obama to Alinsky during this Republican primary race and the fact that most people don't even know who he is, unless of course you're a consumer of right wing radio and Fox News and listen to or watch the likes of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
As Henneberger noted during the interview on Hardball, those people are unfortunately more than familiar with his name since they've been using him to fearmonger about President Obama since the time he first got elected, but most people don't have any idea just who Alinsky is, much less his background and what he stood for.
And as Henneberger wrote in a recent article of hers which they discussed some of here, President Obama is not the one employing Alinsky's tactics -- Saul Alinsky would be so disappointed: Obama breaks ‘Rules for Radicals’. The people who are employing those tactics are Newt Gingrich himself and members of the so-called AstroTurf "tea party," some of whom as they noted here have even praised Alinsky for his tactics.
Gingrich and his ilk are employing one of their favorite tactics with the use of Alinsky's name to attack President Obama, which is to take what you're doing and project it onto your political opponent and hope those listening to you don't know any better. In the case of the right-wing hate radio listeners and Fox viewers, that's a given that they won't know the difference. I hope to see more discussions like this one for those who don't watch or listen to those venues so they are aware of how the right is trying to smear Alinsky while emulating him and are made aware of just how utterly hypocritical and ridiculous their attacks on him are.
And right on cue, Bill Maher I'm sure without meaning to proved their point about the fact that no one on the left even knows who the hell Saul Alinsky is, we got this New Rules segment. Video below the fold.
From Mediaite -- Bill Maher Wants To Know: ‘Who The F@#k Is Saul Alinsky?’