I thought if any organization participated in helping get people to townhalls, that it was astroturfing. Or does that only apply to the right? Because I got this in my email box yesterday:

Dear MoveOn member,
I’m a MoveOn member like you, and I’m working with the local MoveOn Council to organize an event tomorrow in Warner Robins to make our voices heard for real health care reform.

The event is on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, at 5:00 PM in Warner Robins. The location of our event is: Homer J Walker Jr Civic Center.

Here’s the event description:

Jim Marshall, a Blue Dog Democrat, will be having a Town Hall on Healthcare at the Homer Walker Center in Warner Robbins. As you may know, he is waffling on whether or not he will support public option. A group of us MoveOn members have come up with a line of questioning that will punch through his cynicism and get real on this real issue. Bring yourselves, a positive attitude, a “public option means more choices” sign, and your hope for a better America.

Please gather at the Center at 5pm so we can submit our questions early. Look for the women with the 7 Red Ballons out front. We will be with MoveOn. Again, look for the 7 Red Ballons!

I hope you can join me and other local MoveOn members. Click here for more details and to RSVP:

Yes, I’ll be there on Monday at 5 p.m.

Sorry, I can’t make it.

Thanks for all you do.
–Kimberlyn C., MoveOn member

P

Above is a picture taken by my friend Will Davis of the Monroe County Reporter in Forsyth, GA.

Forsyth only has 4,000 people. 700 of them turned out to speak to Congressman Jim Marshall (D-GA 08) about healthcare.

The line was long. The day was hot. More and more people came. Congressman Marshall, a Democrat running in a decidedly Republican congressional district (he’s also my former law school professor), was patient.

Marshall, like the people in his district, opposes the healthcare proposals winding their way through Congress. Marshall went so far as to say he’d vote against all five of the present proposals.

The crowd got a little rowdy, but people feel passionately on the issue. You’ll see though that they were not really a mob. They were not really protestors. They were citizens turning out to tell their Congressman they are greatly opposed to Barack Obama’s agenda.

And he listened. The media, of course, will not cover gatherings like this because there really is no news and it is not in a major metropolitan area. But peaceful assemblies like this are far more common than those we’ve seen on television — and even those were not chaotic masses of angry people as the media would have us believe.

This is American democracy in all its glory.

Consider this an open thread.

It was bound to happen.

“I’m not predicting any third waves here,” the Maryland Democrat said in remarks at a forum sponsored by Georgetown University and Politico.

“If you look at first midterm elections historically, the president’s party loses seats,” he said. “The historical trend is pretty clear for Democrats.”

Rather than trying to expand the Democratic House majority in 2010, Van Hollen believes his job is “to hold the line.”

The GOP has unified rapidly under President Obama. The economy is going to go downhill because of the stimulus. When stories about the welfare queens coming back make the local paper, the populace as a whole is going to be up in arms.

The whole thing is pretty bad for the Big O and his party.

The key for the GOP is to start good recruiting early. They’re having problems in places like Georgia 8 against Jim Marshall. He’ll finally be vulnerable this year. I’ve declined to run against him. Perhaps the GOP can convince Austin Scott, who is thinking of a Georgia gubernatorial run, to run against him.

Likewise, the GOP is going to need to find someone to run against Heath Shuler and many of the other lap blue dog Democrats.

I don’t really think the GOP is going to be able to take the House back in 2010, but they’ll make great strides.

More importantly, the GOP needs to get a plan in place to take back state legislatures in 2010. The anti-Democrat wave we should be facing will help them in the states and that will help with redistricting.