Bill Pascoe, In The Right
Nancy Pelosi, we have heard from reliable sources, does not have a particularly good sense of humor, at least not when the jokes are aimed at her.
That’s a shame, because our friends at Independent Women’s Voice have been having a good deal of fun at her expense this weekend.
Earlier this week, they published a survey they’d conducted in 35 targeted House Democrat districts, polling voters on attitudes toward health care reform; it was, to my knowledge, the first (and remains the only) survey taken in these key targeted districts.
Not content merely to provide a new angle on data, they brainstormed about how to impact the final 72 hours of debate.
Friday, they launched a simple web site: BarackHatesThis.com, to host a public target list of the undecideds on health care reform, complete with all the information someone would need — district office phone numbers, Capitol Hill office phone numbers, even fax numbers for those who got tired of the busy signals and wanted to write a letter and fax it to a Member of Congress.
IWV found a way to get Rush Limbaugh to mention the new site on the air. I’m reliably told the site crashed within moments, and had to be moved to new servers to handle the crush of traffic.
Friday night, IWV launched another, even simpler site, aimed at congressional Democratic staffers whose boss plans to vote “YES” on health care reform. YourBossVotedYes.com features a live feed of Craigslist apartments in Fredericksburg, and recent job openings in northern Virginia.
Yesterday, IWV expanded on the concept and followed up with a new site: SpeakerPelosiHatesThis.com, which approximates the standard cork board on the standard cubicle wall of a standard staffer for a House Democrat who’s just voted “YES” on the health care vote. it’s full of post-its and reminder notes about important to-do items — like checking the job bank at the Center for American Progress, and calling a moving company, and filing for unemployment.
It’s got a pretty amusing video, too, embedded in the web site. it’s worth following to the end, just to see the “Number 1” on the Top Ten list of To-Do Items for those poor staffers.
Not satisfied, IWV followed up later Saturday afternoon with CoburnsPromise.com, dedicated to making sure House Democrats themselves were aware that any promises of life after Congress — at least in a PAS (Presidential Appointment subject to Senate confirmation) position in the Obama Administration — in exchange for their vote on health care reform now were not a good bet for them, no, not at all. Like Horatio at the bridge, Coburn had pledged to stand and block such confirmations. But that’s okay, reminds the web site, there are plenty of other good jobs to which a President can appoint a former Member of Congress, jobs that do not require Senate confirmation — jobs like Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, or Director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency of the District of Columbia.
And yes, that’s Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyrie” that plays when you load the CoburnsPromise.com page.
When I asked this morning, I was told that almost 7 million people had seen the banner ads for SpeakerPelosiHatesThis.com — and most of them were to be found on liberal blogs like DailyKos, Talking Points Memo, and Democratic Underground. After all, it was Democrats on Capitol Hill who were the ads’ targets.
Well, good for them, and all, but I don’t see why we conservatives cannot be let in on the joke. So share this blog post with your own lists, please, and let them see what one organization with strong and creative leadership can accomplish with just a small amount of money.
