Minutes before Rep. Anthony Weiner was scheduled to appear
at a press conference to admit he sent lewd photos of himself to young women,
reporters found themselves face
with conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.
Breitbart, whose website BigGovernment.com broke the
Weinergate story, was prompted
by reporters to take the podium after arriving to see Weiner's press
conference.
Weiner's acolytes previously accused Breitbart of hacking
into the congressman's Twitter account, but reporters at the press conference
weren't about to vindicate him.
Instead, they used the opportunity to grill him about the
ACORN scandal, questioned him about James O'Keefe's editing practices, and
implied he was out for revenge.
"Give me one example of a provable lie," Breitbart
challenged the reporters, after lamenting that they've accused him of lying in
the past. "One. One. Journalists? One. Put your reputation on the line here.
One provable lie."
Instead of providing an example, reporters continued to
hammer him.
Remember Joel Pollak, the Harvard Law student who questioned
a feisty Barney Frank last year? He's now a human rights lawyer and running for
Congress in Illinois, and conservative media powerhouse Andrew Breitbart is
hosting a fundraiser
for him Wednesday in Los Angeles (yes, the page contains a typo--it's 2010 not
2009).
Pollak moved from South Africa to Skokie when he was a boy,
moving back briefly to work in South African politics. His unique story can be
found on his website,
along with this statement on why he's running:
After being encouraged for several
months by friends in the district, Joel decided to run for Congress in
September 2009, after attending a town hall meeting on health care held by
incumbent representative Jan Schakowsky. Joel caught paid organizers on tape as
they instructed their supporters to block opposing views from being heard. The
experience convinced him that the 9th district needed a new voice.
Of course, all we
heard from the elite media was that town halls were attended by Astroturf
activists who were manipulated by the Republican Party, but as Pollak's footage
shows, they got it backwards. Breitbart
picked up the story and it went national. Pollak wrote:
The HCAN video became a YouTube
sensation, the "smoking gun" in the controversy over which side of the debate
was "Astroturfing"--i.e. creating a false image of grass roots support. I have
since discovered that the video contains clues about how the entire nationwide
health care campaign was planned and executed by congressional Democrats and
the White House.
But that wasn't all. Pollak also noted that his Congressional
opponent's husband, Robert Creamer, authored a progressive instructional manual--while
serving a prison sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion--to convince Americans to
support universal health care. His plan was put into action by the Obama
Administration.
The book was endorsed by leading
Democrats and their allies, including SEIU boss Andy Stern--the most frequent
visitor thus far to the Obama White House--and chief Obama strategist David
Axelrod, who noted that Creamer's tome "provides a blueprint for future victories."
In the book, Creamer draws lessons
from decades of experience on the radical left, including the teachings of
arch-radical Saul Alinsky, and several episodes from Rep. Schakowsky's
political career. He also lays out a "Progressive Agenda for Structural Change,"
which includes a ten-point plan for foisting universal health care on the
American people in 2009[.]
Ah, Saul Alinsky. Creamer learned from the master, writing, "To
win we must not generate understanding, but emotion--fear, revulsion, anger,
disgust."
Just as the Obama Administration has applied Creamer's manifesto,
so it has adopted fellow Chicagoan Alinsky. The "founder of modern community organizing," Alinksy was the author of Rules for Radicals, a Machiavellian the-ends-justify-the-means
tactical manual for organizing 1960s revolutionaries.
Alinksy was quite the
radical himself. He told
Playboy in 1972:
I knew plenty of Communists in
those days, and I worked with them on a number of projects. Back in the
Thirties, the Communists did a hell of a lot of good work; they were in the
vanguard of the labor movement and they played an important role in aiding
blacks and Okies and Southern sharecroppers. Anybody who tells you he was
active in progressive causes in those days and never worked with the Reds is a
goddamn liar. Their platform stood for all the right things, and unlike many liberals,
they were willing to put their bodies on the line. Without the Communists, for
example, I doubt the C.I.O. could have won all the battles it did. I was also
sympathetic to Russia in those days, not because I admired Stalin or the Soviet
system but because it seemed to be the only country willing to stand up to
Hitler. I was in charge of a big part of fund raising for the International
Brigade and in that capacity I worked in close alliance with the Communist
Party.
In the famous campaign photo of Obama writing on a
chalkboard in the classroom, he's writing an Alinsky theory. Alinksy's son
thought that Obama
successfully applied his father's theories when he said, "Barack Obama's
training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its
effectiveness. "
And Hillary Clinton even wrote a master's thesis on Alinksy.
What is it with Chicago? We haven't even mentioned
Blagojevich or Rahm Emanuel's shower incident with Eric Massa, and I'm already
horrified.
As if Chicago doesn't have a bad enough reputation for
corruption, Pollak's father made things worse for the city's image when he blew the whistle
on its organ allocation system, which was unfairly allocating livers in a way
that prevented them from reaching the most deserving patients.
The younger Pollak apparently has a similar revulsion to
corruption, having famously stood up to Barney Frank, whose scandals need not
be mentioned in this post. Even if you don't agree with Pollak' politics,
please read his biography
to learn more about this truly interesting person.
Topic
This blog attempts to add perspective and context to local and national politics, through a variety of disciplines, such as history, economics, and philosophy--all tempered with common sense.
About the author
Eric Ingemunson's commentary has been featured on Hannity, CNN, NBC, Inside Edition, and KFI's The John and Ken Show.
Eric was born and raised in Ventura County and currently resides in Moorpark. He earned a master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from California Lutheran University. As a conservative, Eric supports smaller government, less taxation, more individual freedom, the rule of law, and a strict adherence to the Constitution.