President Barack Obama admitted Monday to a group of students in Shanghai, China that, while billed as the most tech savvy President in history, he doesn’t use Twitter.

When asked by a student if he was aware of China’s firewall blocking the popular micro-blogging service, Obama forewent his tech friendly reputation, saying, “I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access.”

President Obama’s admission of his unfamiliarity of the internet tool du jour would have been an altogether innocuous acknowledgement that the President is, well, old, were it not for the dogged efforts of his campaign apparatus in portraying the young then-Senator Obama as hip and tech savvy opposite the old and inaccessible Senator John McCain.

In explicitly making the case that McCain’s simple awareness of technology was not equivalent to Obama’s superior appreciation–and use–of technology, the Obama campaign launched a web ad in September of 2008 callously assailing McCain for his inability to use a computer and send an email. Were McCain elected, their logic went, the seat of the Free World’s power would run through the 73-year-old’s car phone and computer running on MS-DOS.

Of the ad, the Obama campaign said, “‘Still’ details why John McCain would just be another out of touch president offering more of the same.”

While the Obama campaign suggested McCain’s indifference to new technology was the result of the Senator’s age, Republicans were quick to note the real reason for his perceived tech-illiteracy: Senator McCain’s battle-field wounds limit the use of his hands. The Obama campaign never apologized, insisting McCain’s failure to make use of technology was due to his age and he was therefor unfit to serve as President.

President Obama’s admission that he’s Twitter-averse is not an acknowledgment that he’s old or even out of touch, like he suggested of Senator McCain. It is, however, emblematic of the duplicitous ends to which President Obama and his allies–complicit in this and countless other deceptive electioneering offenses–will go in the name of campaigning.

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO-turned-McCain campaign advisor and surrogate, announced on Thursday the endorsements of eight Republican Senators, including conservative stalwart Senator Tom Coburn.

“Our nation is facing serious economic challenges because we keep rehiring the same failed career politicians who have proven themselves incapable of making hard choices,” read Coburn’s statement. “Carly’s common sense and fiscal conservatism will be a welcome addition to the United States Senate. I am glad to offer her my endorsement.”

Today’s announcement by Fiorina, who only formally announced her bid for Senate on Wednesday, comes on the heels of Senator Jim Demint’s endorsement of Fiorina’s Republican primary opponent, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

In addition to Coburn, Senators Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Olympia Snowe endorsed the former Silicon Valley executive.

“I am humbled to have earned the endorsement of each one of these distinguished Republican Senators,” Fiorina said of today’s endorsements. “They are all dedicated public servants and it is a true honor to have their support.”

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The Sunlight Foundation’s Luke Rosiak reported on Friday the Republican National Committee spent $1.4 million on the redesign of GOP.com, a figure which totals more than five times what the RNC’s Democratic counterpart spent to host and maintain Democrats.org. Sources familiar with the RNC’s digital makeover, however, contest Sunlight’s report, calling it “ridiculous.”

Rosiak writes:

The biggest disparity seems to be bandwidth costs–the RNC paid Smartech Corp., a Republican-focused hosting firm, more than a million dollars, plus $22,000 to Eloqua, compared to the DNC’s $203,000 to Sprint, Switch and Data and Servint Corp.–despite the fact that the two sites’ traffic, which determines bandwidth usage and, largely, hosting costs, was the same.

But the design of the site itself was costly, too. In the months prior to the October 13 launch of GOP.com, the committee paid $328,000 to 11 firms for Web development.

For an organization that prides itself on investigative research, the Sunlight Foundation is comically inept at reading campaign finance data. “They should learn to read an FEC report,” remarked my source.

The most outrageous of the RNC’s web-related expenditures, Sunlight’s exposé goes, is the $1 million-plus disbursement to Tennessee-based Smartech Corp. for hosting services. Smartech, considered by many a heavyweight in Republican web hosting, began consulting for the RNC in 2000.

“I can tell you from my tenure there that the Smartech bill includes a lot of things that aren’t GOP.com,” said former RNC eCampaign Director Michael Turk. “If you go back and look at that bill over time, I suspect it has always been high, regardless of who was Chair and regardless of whether they were rolling out a new GOP.com.”

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Organizing for America, the increasingly combative political operation of the White House, today unveiled a new web video targeting Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele, charging the Republican Party chief with “siding with Washington elites and insurance companies and playing political games to kill reform.”

The latest installment in OfA’s “call ‘em out” campaign—a call to arms of sorts for complacent allies of President Barack Obama to debunk Republican myths about heath care reform—accuses Steele of scare-mongering and orchestrating a misinformation campaign against the President’s efforts on health care.

“Michael Steele is willing to lie and play political games in order to kill reform that would help Americans of every political party — so we’re calling him out,” reads an email from OfA Executive Director Jen O’Malley announcing the video.

The Democrats’ new web campaign, however, is as blatantly wrong as it is overtly hostile.

Opening with a recent segment from White House-scorned FOX News on health care reform’s “obligation to older Americans,” Steele said, “Just look at the situation with our veterans when you have a manual out there telling our veterans, you know, stuff like are you really a value to your community. You know, encouraging them to commit suicide.” Promptly followed by a blaring, rubber-stamped chyron reading “FALSE,” OfA cites as Politifact.com as cover for their claim.

At issue is a Department of Veteran Affairs-funded pamphlet—dubbed the “death book” by the Wall Street Journal—which presented various advanced care scenarios to aging veterans, callously prompting readers to then decide if their life would be “not worth living.” Democratic strategists correctly note the “Your Life, Your Choices” document was first published in 1997 and promoted by the VA throughout President George W. Bush’s two terms in office. What they fail to mention, conveniently, is that the “manual” was suspended after a review by Bush administration officials – and only later revived in 2009 by the new Democratic administration.

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The Republican National Committee will unveil a new website early Tuesday morning that promises to increase grassroots participation and offers improved navigability and smarter marketing and fundraising tools for the GOP, according to party officials.

Upon reaching the new GOP.com, RNC Chairman Michael Steele takes a virtual step onto the computer screen and leads users on a tour of the site’s new features.

“Notice anything different?” asks Steele. “It’s the new GOP.com. It’s a forward-looking, open-platform for the party of new ideas. If you’re a Republican activist, this is your space.”

The developers of the new website hope to capitalize on the organic activism that gave way to Tea Parties across the nation by “creating a larger, more informed, more organized, and more energized Republican community.”

Conscious of the propensity for online social networking to mobilize activists, the new website was designed with an unmistakable attentiveness to social media and blogging, having devoted a significant portion of the landing page’s real estate to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

At first glance, the RNC’s new digital threads look nothing like a typical political website. From the dynamic logo featuring user-submitted pictures of supporters to the refreshingly simple navigation menu, the revamped and reorganized GOP web presence represents a commonly-preached but rarely-practiced belief on Capitol Hill: that the best ideas come from outside the Beltway.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised today the final health care bill will include a controversial public option insurance plan, contrary to recent indications by Democratic staffers that such provisions might be eliminated to make the reforms more palatable for moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats.

“We are going to have a public option before this bill goes to the president’s desk,” Reid said Thursday afternoon on a conference call with constituents.

But the Nevada Democrat, who is tasked with reconciling the competing Senate committee versions of the bill, yesterday told reporters the final bill would not be fashioned until the White House and leaders of the Finance and HELP committees had been consulted.

“Once that’s done, we’ll decide jointly as to what should be in that bill,” he said.

On Wednesday, the final bill hinges on consultation with Senate leadership and the President. Thursday, news surfaces that suggests Reid has consolidated the two Senate versions, and opted for the more progressive. There exists only two possible explanations. Harry Reid is either the single most productive member of Congress or he’s circumventing Democratic leaders—and the Ranking Republicans of the HELP and Finance committees—to advance his own agenda.

While Reid’s comments will likely embolden disaffected progressives, they promise to marginalize Democratic Senators Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu and Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

Some Democratic leaders maintain there’s no “line in the sand” in the health care overhaul, signaling the potential for negotiations with Republicans. Still, Reid’s comments today represent the increasing vulnerability of Democrats to attacks from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party for rejecting the public option.

Highlighting this vulnerability, Daily Kos Founder Markos Moulitsas wrote on Twitter today, “Blanche Lincoln will soon wonder why no one is riding to her rescue, or [cares] about her possibly losing.”

Moderate Democrats must fall in line like Speaker Reid or risk losing deep-pocketed progressive donors and online advocates like Moulitsas.

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Anxious to capitalize on a summer’s worth of anti-tax Tea Parties and the fierce public opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, over 1,000 California Republican delegates and activists ascended upon Indian Wells for the state Party’s semi-annual convention over the weekend – but one high-profile Republican was conspicuously absent, sparking criticism from attendees and her likely-primary opponent Chuck DeVore.

Citing the physical demands of her ongoing treatment for breast cancer, for which she was diagnosed last March, potential GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said her schedule of radiation treatments would not permit her attendance at the convention.

But the DeVore campaign has noted that, while Fiorina’s health curiously precluded her from attending the party gathering, she spent much of the following Monday campaigning in Fresno with ranchers and participated via satellite in Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Summit.”

Laying the foundation for the belief that Fiorina is somehow casually exploiting her illness for the benefit of her campaign, State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore told The Fresno Bee he finds “it curious that her campaign said she was unable to make the convention for health reasons, and yet, … she was engaged in what appears to be a pretty standard, strenuous campaign day yesterday – the day after the convention.”

Indicative of his campaign’s reliance on rumor-mongering of a particularly vicious and fatuous sort, DeVore’s critics say his campaign’s latest assault on Fiorina is predicated on the notion that he can cobble together support among the GOP rank and file by fostering the double-edged rumor that his opponent is either too ill to campaign against Bay Area liberal Barbara Boxer or too liberal to campaign for the Republican nomination – or, perhaps, both.

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Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, whose decision not to seek a third term as governor sparked immense speculation among Republicans about a 2012 campaign, announced today he will launch the “Freedom First” PAC in early November, granting him the opportunity to curry favor among the party faithful by raising and transferring sums of money to state and federal Republican candidates.

After launching a website last week describing Pawlenty as “extreme,” the Democratic National Committee today characterized the potential 2012 contender as a “part-time Governor” after news surfaced he was to launch a political action committee.

“Tim Pawlenty is quickly becoming the definition of ’say one thing and do another’. Today’s news about Pawlenty starting a political action committee is just the latest in a series of broken pledges by the Governor - first breaking his pledge to not raise taxes on the people of Minnesota, and now breaking his pledge to finish his term ‘strong’ as Governor,” said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan.

“This is just more evidence that Pawlenty is, at best, a part-time Governor who cares more about his national political ambitions than the people of Minnesota,” he said in an email to reporters this afternoon.

While the formation of PACs are indeed a signature of budding presidential campaigns, Democrats have not always been of the opinion they somehow represent a “broken pledge” or a dereliction of duty, as one political advisor close to Pawlenty noted.

Then-Senator Hillary Clinton filed a statement of organization for her leadership PAC, “HILLPAC,” on January 5, 2001, spending eight years as a “part-time” Senator before leaving her post in 2009.

On June 25, 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama announced the formation of “Hope Fund,” whose donations to politicians in key 2008 primary states raised questions of legality on the level of coordination between the PAC and the Obama campaign.

And four days after the official formation of Obama’s “Hope Fund” PAC, then-Senator Joe Biden filed a statement of organization with the FEC for his “Unite our States” PAC, in anticipation of his campaign for president in 2008.

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After Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) rejected Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ultimatum to offer a mea culpa on the floor of the House for his outburst during President Barack Obama’s address on Wednesday evening or face a formal admonishment, Democratic leaders are now moving to introduce a resolution to censure Wilson.

But Republican responses to the pending censure might explain why some prescient Democrats, perhaps guilty of similar actions under the last administration, were uneasy with assuming the role of disciplinarian: several key Democrats are weathering their own controversies, including Reps. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means committee, Jack Murtha (D-PA), and Pete Visclosky (D-IN).

“Call it the Glass House of Representatives effect,” writes Politico’s Glenn Thrush.

The censure is “another stunning example of hypocrisy,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in a statement. “Congressional Democrats are wasting taxpayers’ time and resources on a legislative measure to censure Congressman Joe Wilson so they don’t have to talk about their exceedingly unpopular health care plan.”

While the proposed censure has galvanized Republican legislative opposition to the President and Speaker Pelosi, it represented low-hanging fruit for many Capitol Hill communicators – an opportunity to revive fading Democratic controversies.

“If we are going to march Members down to the well of the House to apologize, Joe Wilson is going to have to get in line behind Nancy Pelosi, who attacked the intelligence community who protects us, Charlie Rangel who cheated on his taxes, Jack Murtha – a walking scandal, and we all know how the Democratic leadership tried to protect William Jefferson” said Steele.

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On Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama delivered an address to a joint-session of Congress in the hopes of strengthening public and legislative support for his health care reforms, but shrewd Republican Capitol Hill researchers note that the President’s carefully-crafted speech was missing one important element – namely, the troops.

While the president consciously rallied fleeting progressive support and attempted to dispel myths surrounding the legislation, he wholly neglected to mention military personnel, becoming the first wartime Commander-in-Chief to do so since former President Gerald Ford in 1974.

With public approval of the war effort in Afghanistan dipping, the case could be made—and with little difficulty—that the decision not to mention the troops serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere was a conscious, deliberate one.

Obama’s progressive base is rebelling, raucously in some instances, on everything from the public option to LGBT marriage equality. As it stands now, the President’s political house has been beaten and battered, and a commitment to the Afghanistan War just may be the big, bad wolf to come blow it all down. And this is not a risk the White House is willing to take.

The collapse of public resolve for the ongoing but unmentioned efforts in Afghanistan is symptomatic of the Administration’s timidity with fully committing to the war. Americans look to their President in times of war for leadership and guidance. Our President’s silence can mean only one thing, and it surely is not victory.

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In the wake of the public furor over President Barack Obama’s pending speech to school children next Tuesday, defensive Democratic surrogates and administration officials have maintained the President’s address will be a valuable education tool and aims to challenge students to “work hard in school” and “meet short-term goals like behaving in class.”

But the original prepatory material for Obama’s school house stump speech raised a few parents’ eyebrows and left others convinced the principle aim was nothing short of indoctrination.

The Department of Education told teachers they might “extend learning” and stimulate discussion by instructing students to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” And to ensure the students hold themselves accountable, the teacher should collect the letters and redistribute them at a later time – presumably when the President’s approval rating has dropped another 10 points.

In a letter to school administrators announcing Obama’s back-to-school speech, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Obama’s special address will seek to inspire students by impressing upon them the necessity to complete school.

“During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”

White House officials say Obama’s telecast will be the first speech by a sitting president to stress academic achievement since 1991, when President George H. W. Bush spoke to students from Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C.

Democrats, of course, sang a far different tune when a Republican was preparing to address the nation’s school children.

Then-House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri) said, “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the President.”

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Orange County Republican and California State Assemblyman Chuck Devore has been spreading his message of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” across the Golden State for eleven months now, all with the aim of “bouncing Boxer” from the United States Senate in 2010. And he’s so anxious to see her leave that august body that his website bears a clock to track the number of days, hours, and, yes, even minutes “’till Boxer’s gone.”

But while DeVore is surely among the most tenacious and unswerving candidates vying for public office in the 2010 midterm elections, his campaign has seen only moderate success in translating his attributes as a indefatigable campaigner into support – namely, contributions, with his last FEC filing in July showing only $75,600 in cash on hand in his uphill campaign against Democratic incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer.

In an hour-long interview with REDSTATE, DeVore likened his insurgent, techno-centric campaign to that of then-Senator Barack Obama, and said he anticipates a surge in donations as his campaign further develops its online fundraising infrastructure.

The DeVore campaign is “trying to use new media in a synergistic way to tie together volunteers in a way that had not previously possible prior to the time that Al Gore invented the internet,” he told me, tongue-in-cheek.

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As Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas navigates the political minefield of health care reform, the two-term Democrat may be hewing a more conservative course in the wake of a new poll by Public Policy Polling which found her in a dead heat with three potential Republican challengers despite scant name recognition.

PPP, whose sampling of voters skewed Democratic, found that only 36% of respondents approve of Lincoln’s job performance, while 44% say they disprove. In March of this year, the same outfit found that Lincoln maintained an approval rating with a 5-point positive spread.

The three would-be GOP challengers polled included state Senator Gilbert Baker, Huckabee fundraiser Curtis Coleman and Harvard-educated lawyer and U.S. Army veteran Tom Cotton. Among them, Baker performed the best; however a majority of Arkansans—ranging from 78% to 83%—were unsure of their opinions on the three men.

“You couldn’t get a clearer indication that the national momentum is with Republicans right now than a poll showing some guys with single digit name recognition running even with an incumbent Senator,” said PPP’s Dean Debnam.

With Obama’s health care proposal fairing worse in the polls than former President Clinton’s defeated reforms of 1994, Lincoln must take into consideration the consequences of supporting the President’s contentious legislation in a state whose voters ten months ago gave Republican John McCain 59% of the vote.

What’s more, the hemorrhaging of Democratic support to wavering public opinion raises a serious dilemma for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and poses an acute challenge to the President’s legislative agenda, as Democrats today lost their filibuster-proof majority with the death of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Reid must accept the political reality that Lincoln, who previously bucked party leadership on the cap-and-trade legislation designed to reduce carbon emissions and the reauthorization of banking infusion, may be the next casualty in the polarized health care debate.

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In his bid for U.S. Senate, Republican Chuck DeVore has gone to great lengths to portray his primary election opponent Carly Fiorina as too liberal, particularly on the issue of abortion, but some California political observers now say the cash-strapped DeVore campaign is playing fast and loose with the facts.

Last week, Fiorina announced she took the first step in challenging Senator Barbara Boxer, and by proxy DeVore, by registering her campaign committee, “Carly for California,” with the IRS.

The DeVore campaign, certainly wasting no time, launched a cheeky website to “welcome Carly to the race,” asking supporters to send Fiorina one of four pre-scripted emails. Found among the original choices was the patronizing option to ask Ms. Fiorina, 54, to “make up her mind” on abortion, adding that “Carly Fiorina has never said whether she’s pro-life.” The DeVore campaign has since changed the wording to “suspect on life issues,” but the sentiment—that Fiorina is some sort of pro-abortion Manchurian Candidate—remains the same.

Following the launch of the website, DeVore allies began widely circulating an item from the Wall Street Journal that so matter-of-factly described Fiorina as “pro-choice on abortion” it reeked of poor campaign opposition research. Yesterday, the article was amended to show that Fiorina was, in fact, pro-life.

You should have detected a theme here.

Despite DeVore’s protestations, Fiorina settled on the contentious issue of abortion years ago. And contrary to the campaign’s constant refrain, she proudly calls herself a “pro-life, conservative, and life-long Republican.”

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On a conference call with progressive religious leaders late Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama aggressively challenged his Republican critics’ “misinformation” blitz, arguing the claim by many social conservative groups that his health care proposal would subsidize and mandate reproductive care is a blatant fabrication, and insisted they were “bearing false witness.”

“You’ve heard this is all going to mean government funding of abortion,” the President said. “Not true.”

But as with many of Obama’s statements regarding his health care proposal, his seemingly forthright claim is simply ‘not true.’ Before a crowd of Planned Parenthood executives and contributors in 2007, then-Senator Obama explicitly pledged to not yield on “the fundamental issue” of abortion, adding that “reproductive care is basic care, it is essential care.”

The right to an abortion, Obama said, “is at the center and at the heart of the plan that I proposed.”

“Essentially, what we are doing is to say that we’re gonna set up a public plan that all persons and all women can access if they don’t have health insurance. It will be a plan that will provide all essential services, including reproductive services,” Obama said to applause.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins has been on Capitol Hill working with pro-life members of Congress to include amendments that would prohibit tax-payer funded abortions, but says despite the President’s fierce protestations, the House and Senate health care reform plans will likely subsidize reproductive care unless Obama intervenes.

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President Barack Obama, who campaigned on the promise of changing the rigidly-partisan climate in Washington, has resigned from the prospect of bipartisan comprehensive health care reform, according to top White House aides.

Declaring war on Republicans critical of the president’s proposal, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offers a far less rosy picture of Obama’s success in fostering bipartisanship than the image the Obama campaign created last November.

“The Republican leadership has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day,” Emanuel said.

Democratic leaders say Republican obstructionism has forced their go-it-alone hand, but evidence exists to the contrary – namely the fact that off-message members of Congress have attested to the fact that Congressional Democrats were told, in no uncertain terms, to avoid bipartisan negations with Republicans.

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Democratic health care strategists are calling foul today on GOP officials John Boehner, Thaddeus McCotter, Johnny Isakson, and Chuck Grassley, claiming the Republican Party leaders are guilty of partisan obstructionism of the worst kind – demagoging the same end-of-life provisions, the now-famous “death panels,” they supported in the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill.

“So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now–or they’re lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary,” wrote TIME’s Amy Sullivan.

Not quite.

The four Republicans did, as Sullivan reported, vote for the 2003 bill, but nowhere in the bill did it call for the same broad and wholly unnecessary end-of-life counseling practices as President Barack Obama’s proposal.

Republican operatives argue the comparison between the two bills is an unfair one, noting, specifically, that Republican-backed provisions in the 2003 bill called for end-of-life counseling only in cases where individuals were already on hospice care—that is, terminally ill and close to death—whereas the 2009 bill calls for end-of-life counseling for all 44 million seniors on Medicare every five years.

“Anyone who understands this issue would find this comparison idiotic,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. “Hospice care is, by definition, for people who are already close to death. The Democrats’ new government takeover of health care legislation would offer this counseling to every senior on Medicare.”

The 2003 bill, Steel explains, is not nearly as prescriptive as the proposed legislation of 2009, which calls for, among other things, the explanation of living wills, durable power of attorney, orders of life-sustaining treatment, health care proxies and end-of-life services by medical practitioners.

The 2003 legislation backed by Boehner, McCotter, Isakson, and Grassley was specific as it related to end-of-life consultation for those already in hospice care or those who were terminally ill – not for the 44 million seniors already enrolled in Medicare.

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After a series of unsuccessful requests to arrange a town hall over the August recess with Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey (CO-4), grassroots organizers opted instead to host their own health care town hall in the congresswoman’s absence – complete with an empty chair and placard for the reticent Markey.

The Northern Colorado Townhall Committee, who say their objective is to “provide a forum” for the voters of Northern Colorado, announced today they would hold a health care town hall on August 25th, and extended an open invitation to Representative Markey to moderate the event.

“With the August recess nearly half way over, we can’t wait any longer,” said the group’s founder, Kelly Trosper. “When other Reps across the nation are adding extra meetings, we still don’t have a schedule from her. This is a forum to discuss urgent topics, to include Health Care reform. We’re having to set one up ourselves, because our Rep isn’t making herself available.”

But this afternoon, following the public outcry and impressive political theater, Markey’s staff announced a town hall blitz, featuring 11 public forums on health care reform.

Greg Merton, a spokesman for the townhall committee, remains skeptical of Markey’s new-found interest in dialogue, and points to a local news report where Markey’s staff obfuscated on the matter last night, saying no details on the Congresswoman’s events would be made public for at least another week.

Confronted with the prospect of engaging in a dialogue with unhappy constituents, Democratic members of Congress have begun employing questionable tactics to limit access to town hall, some staffing the forums with supporters, while others still requiring photo identification to verify residency. While Congressional Democrats routinely demagogue the latter practice as it relates to voting, arguing it disenfranchises poor and minority voters, they seemingly have no problem disenfranchising low- and middle-income families concerned with the future of health care in the United States.

Concerned Markey may chart a similar course of action, Merton says his group intends to keep the August 25th event on-the-books until they “find out the ‘rules of engagement’” for the Congresswoman’s other events.

“We appreciate the small victory for democracy,” Merton says, adding, “but we’ll be keeping the date so we can be sure to be heard.”

Markey’s staff did not return an immediate request for comment.

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At a health care town hall today, President Barack Obama told a New Hampshire audience that he has never claimed to be an advocate of a single-payer health care system, alleging that his Republican opponents were employing “scare tactics” to derail substantive health care reform.

“I have not said that I am a supporter of a single-payer system,” he said, channeling former presidential contender John ‘I voted for it before I voted against it’ Kerry.

But in August of last year, Obama touted single-payer systems as a promising solution to the ailing health care system at a New Mexico town hall. Eliminating private insurance companies and instead opting for a pseudo-Medicare system with the government footing the bill for all health care-related expenses, he said, would be a more effective means to provide greater coverage than our system’s current iteration.

“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” said then-Senator Obama. “I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody.”

Evidence of Obama’s open embrace of single payer health care systems dates farther back than 2008, much to the chagrin of the White House’s professional wordsmiths, who no doubt spent hours retooling the president’s message for today’s town hall.

Unequivocally expressing his support for a government-run health care system, Obama said to a crowd of AFL-CIO members in 2003, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer, universal health care coverage.”

Obama’s evolution on the extent to which the federal government should meddle in the private marketplace of health care coverage is one that speaks to the White House’s justifiable concern they may be losing the debate. Obama and Congressional Democrats are anxious to stem the tide of fleeting public opinion, and both have gone to great lengths to cast their opponents as fear mongers.

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The scene of a Metro Atlanta town hall meeting quickly deteriorated when Democratic Congressman David Scott (GA-13) suddenly became enraged, and, in a breathtaking display of congressional machismo, began berating constituents.

Scott displayed his temper during a question-and-answer period when David Hill, a local resident and doctor, questioned the congressman over his support of President Barack Obama’s proposed single-payer health care system.

“Why are you voting for a health care plan that is shown not to work in Massachusetts and why are you going to institute that in a nation-wide manner?”

With a look of confusion on his face, the congressman first quietly asked an aide, “Is that the type of bill they got going on?” Then, reassured by staff that the bill Hill referenced was, in fact, the bill before Congress, Scott proceeded to respond, insomuch as the Congressman’s angry tirade may be called a response.

“I’m listening to my constituents, OK,” Scott said, with a heavy and awkward emphasis on “my.” “These are people who live in the 13th Congressional district, who vote in this district. That’s who I’ve got to respond to, OK. Right, alright.”

Grimacing and sternly brandishing his finger at Dr. Hill, Scott’s anger intensified, as did his rhetoric.

“So what you’ve got to understand, those of you who are here, who have taken and came and hijacked this event we dealing with here, this is not a health care event. You made the choice to come here and take advantage of this meeting that these people in Douglasville worked hard to put together to deal with this road,” Scott said, referencing the relocation of a local highway in Douglassville, GA.

“You chose to come and to do it on your own. Not a single one of you had the decency to call my office and set up for a meeting, OK. Do that. Do that!”

Local Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA-TV reports that Hill, a verified resident of Georgia’s 13th district, has attempted, on multiple occasions and all in vain, to secure sit-downs with the incensed Congressman, however.

Before yielding the microphone to a staffer, Scott gave an austere warning to Dr. Hill and others present: “Don’t, don’t come and take advantage of what these individuals have done. You want a meeting with me on health care, I’ll give it to you. You come on August 24th. On August 28th.”

Scott’s aide told the crowd to pay close attention to the website for details on the health care town hall, but no such details have been made public on the Congressman’s website and emails to the Congressman’s staff have not been returned.

Scott’s veiled suggestion that the concerned doctor was not a “resident of Georgia’s 13th district”—ostensibly rooted in the fact that Hill is white, while Scott represents a district with a large African American population—and the contention that Hill had somehow “hijacked” the town hall is another matter altogether.

As a voter of the neighboring district in Atlanta, Congressman Scott, I must say, white voters like Hill and myself are not out to hijack your health care events, and we are certainly not out to hijack substantive health care reform – for which the same can be said of doctors. Voters are, however, out to prevent the creation of a single-payer health care system, a system you support, albeit a system you supported only after aides reminded you.

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