Some years back, I organized and participated in quite a bit of political mischief. I’ve gotten members of congress arrested for civil disobedience, I almost got my jaw broken for shouting during a Bob Dole rally, I’ve had deranged people yell "Arab terrorist" at me during the Gulf War. I’ve picketed in neighborhoods outside the homes of scabs who crossed a strike picket line. I’ve done a bit of street theater. And I’ve helped folks with video cameras ambush politicians and corporate executives, trying to get them to embarrass themselves.
This weekend, out of touch Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg (MI-09) was out campaigning trying to round up some votes. Apparently the Congressman isn’t aware that it’s not a good idea to let your chief of staff have the kind of world-class meltdown I dreamed of eliciting, and that it's especially bad to do it inches from a video camera. [Update: It may not have been clear, but I was not the person who filmed it, and I was not involved in any way.]
Knollenberg has never had a tough race. In 1992 he slipped through a three-way primary in what was then a heavily Republican district when two better-known candidates with vague positions on abortion canceled out each others’ votes; Knollenberg won through the support of Right to Life, the NRA and ultra-conservative activists. He’s coasted for years, but his district has become much more Democratic while he’s remained a reliable rubber stamp for George W. Bush.
As Wisecup frothed and fulminated in to the camera, Knollenberg doddered away, apparently oblivious that his chief of staff was making his life a hell of a lot more complicated and getting him the wrong kind of attention. OK, so he couldn’t control him in the moment. But heck, Wisecup doesn’t know when to step back and Knollenberg apparently can’t control his chief of staff; this is Wisecup’s manifesto of what it means to be un-American, sent this afternoon to the Politico’s blog:
"Per Politico’s blog on my run-in with Moveon.org, I will define what’s un-American for you.
It’s un-American to wage a political protest of a congressman’s wife at her home.
It’s un-American to disturb a congressman’s neighbors with weird anti-war tactics while our soldiers are deployed overseas fighting radical Islam.
It’s un-American to cheer for the imposition of $85 billion of Nancy Pelosi CAFÉ mandates that would destroy the American car companies and the good-paying UAW jobs they provide.
It’s un-American to use bullying, gotcha political tactics that scare female congressional staffers.
It’s un-American to use stalking and harassment as a means to score cheap political points.
True Americans make their political arguments with vigor, honor and pride. I have looked the Moveon.org movement in the eye and I speak with certainty that this element does not want America to win in Iraq. It does want Toyota to beat GM and the other American car companies. And it wants all Americans to pay higher taxes to support more government welfare. Higher taxes + more government welfare = a weaker America.
I was raised by grandparents who revered FDR and Truman. They lived through the Great Depression. I know how great the Democratic Party used to be. It’s not meeting that standard today. And they have Michael Moore, Daily Kos, and Moveon.org to thank for it.
Let the battle for the definition of what it means to be a true American be joined. You have my two cents. Let others weigh in on the Internet.
I am copying Congressman Knollenberg’s staff on this email ... because they’ve been pushed around by these Moveons for the better part of two years and they don’t want to take it any more."
Maybe Wisecup can get his boss to convene a committee to investigate what it means to be un-American. He can call it the House Un-American Activities Committee. But he might want to work on his rhetoric. He appears to think he sounds like Winston Churchill, when really he comes off more like Joe McCarthy...or maybe Archie Bunker.
And in case you didn't catch it, supporting higher CAFE standards proves, to Wisecup, that you're un-American. Apparently Wisecup doesn't speak for the UAW; instead of rewarding Knollenberg for a lifetime record, according to the AFL-CIO, of voting against working families 94% of the time, the Michigan AFL-CIO (whose largest affiliate union is the UAW) has already endorsed Democrat Gary Peters. [Disclosure: I know Peters and have worked with him in the past.] If you live in MI-09, send Knollenberg the message that he’s wrong to vote against SCHIP. For the rest of you, it’s time to face up the news that Trent Wisecup doesn’t think you’re really an American if you protest or think Congress should raise CAFE standards. And he speaks for Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg.
