Sadly despite this being a pretty indefensible case of a congressmen "acting stupidly" (actually I think he was a wee bit tipsy....check out those eyes in the video), the DNC has actually taken to defending him, from politico, here is the talking points they are using:
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The Democrats' talking points:
1. There is always the part of the story that you can’t see in these gotcha style videos — what were these folks doing, how did they approach him, how were the cameraman and/or others off camera acting?
2. Why would any legitimate student doing a project or a journalist shagging a story not identify themselves. Motives matter — what was the motivation here? To incite this very type of reaction?
3. This is clearly the work of the Republican Party and the “interviewer” is clearly a low level staffer or intern. That’s what explains blurring the face of the “interviewer” and refusing to identify the entity this was done for. The Republicans know if they were caught engaging in this type of gotcha tactic it would undermine their own credibility — yet if it was an individual acting on his own there is no reason that person would have blurred themselves out of the video — and if it was the work of a right wing blog they would have their logo on the video and be shouting their involvement from the roof top.
4. This was a purposefully partisan hit job designed to incite a reaction for political reasons — but it is a tactic so low — the parties involved are remaining anonymous.
5. The fact that no one wants to take credit for this should raise real questions in the minds of voters and the press.
6. Push hard w/ blogs the lack of credibility inherent to anything Breitbart does/posts, given its role in the debunked ACORN videos:
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I've seen the full unedited video and you can see the congressmen approaching down the sidewalk...do the kids jump all over him and ambush him? Nope. They start by saying hello. But then they jump on him right? Nope. They ask him how he is doing. And then the third thing they say to him is "Do you fully support the Obama agenda?" to which he immediately gets in their face saying "Who are you?!" and with a short hesitation starts slapping at the camera until he knocks it out of hand.
I have no idea who these kids are...and maybe they were Republican "gotcha" plants...but seriously who cares? If you're a congressmen and someone asks you a question you don't slap at their camera and grab them like you're a thug ready to beat them up if they don't do what you want.
If you think they're plants or just there for a "gotcha" question you can../gasp..keep walking and say "Sorry boys I'm running a bit behind and I don't have time to take questions, please make an appointment and come by my office though.". This accomplishes two things 1) You don't have to answer the question 2) If they make an appointment you will have their names on your appointment book and you'll know they probably aren't plants (and if they are it will be easy to expose them).
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
