Mental Mob

I watched The Rachel Maddow Show last night, and she had this segment on right-winged mobs—instructed by lobbying group Conservatives for Patient’s Rights—who lambast Democratic congress members during town hall meetings.

In her report, Maddow said CPR had a list of where its followers can go to yell at their congressman or congresswoman on the evils of health care reform.

This morning I wondered if there were any Nebraska events that could turn into health-care hate rallies, so I popped over to their site. Sure enough, CPR lists eleven meetings with Rep. Adrian Smith—who represents Nebraska’s 3rd District.

Nebraska is a state one wouldn’t expect to find a health care reform crusader. In fact, Rep. Smith, judging from a quote on his Web site, seems to be on CPR’s side:

The truth of the matter is the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the Majority party's health care plan could cost in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and to pay for it they want to cut Medicare by $500 billion. This is unacceptable.

We stand at an important crossroads when it comes to health care. Most would agree our current health care system requires reform to reduce costs. But I don't think the solution lies in having the government takeover your health care.

So why is CPR pointing folks to Rep. Smith town hall meetings? Answer: He digs the status quo and the cash insurance companies give his campaign.

The Federal Election Committee lists several insurance providers as contributing to Smith’s 2010 campaign, including the political action committees for Mutual of Omaha and AFLAC. And over the course of his career he’s received at least $79,000 from the Insurance industry and at least $71,000 from the health professionals industry, according to opensecrets.org.

It looks like the mobs CPR is sending these meetings will be met with a friendly face.