Scott Ott's Examiner Scrappleface: Pelosi slams Sept. 8 'AstroTurf' gathering in D.C.
By: Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist
September 1, 2009
News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., today warned Americans that an upcoming health care reform gathering in Washington, D.C., would be comprised of "nothing but bought-and-paid-for minions of dozens of special interest groups ranging from Big Pharmaceutical to the trial lawyers. They are not who they'll appear to be."
"This is AstroTurf on steroids," Rep. Pelosi said. "You'll see them in Brooks Brothers suits, cloaked in fake outrage, acting as if they're speaking on behalf of average Americans. But behind the scenes, the nation's best-funded lobbying groups are pulling all the strings."
The gathering, set to start Sept. 8 on Capitol Hill, will call together participants from every state in the union for "a cynical exercise in plastic Democracy," she said.
"They'll claim to represent the voice of the people," said Pelosi, "but you'll be hard-pressed to find a single 'typical American' among them. Most of them are wealthy. Many are lawyers. Every last one of them had his trip to Washington funded by forces that have their own business interests at heart, rather than the will of the people, or the protection of the Constitution."
The speaker noted that citizens watching the gathering on C-Span on Sept. 8 would hear "impassioned speeches expressing apparent outrage about health care by people who pretend to be mainstream Americans.
"Don't believe them," she warned. "Virtually every word they say is scripted by the very groups that stand to benefit most from changes in the U.S. health care system."
Rep. Pelosi projected the size of the 'unruly mob' at roughly 435.
Examiner Columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the world's leading family-friendly news satire source.
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