Jeff Crank "Sistah Souljahs" His Own Crazies

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by: Colorado Pols

We’ve been talking for some time about how some of the nonsensical claims being made by town hall protesters in the last few weeks were on the verge of severely harming the credibility of health care reform opponents, much to the chagrin of those who have found these “Obama wants to kill your grandma” assertions quite useful regardless of their basis in reality.

Nothing a little ex post facto whitewash won’t help, as the Denver Post reports:

One Peter Fleckenstein of Arizona is the Twitter-savvy keyboardist behind sheets of conservative talking points rolled up, waved and jabbed at testy forums across the nation.

Fleckenstein says he is a father of two in Phoenix and was in the military. Weeks ago, he began combing one of the primary health-care reform bills under his Fleckman persona. He blogged and tweeted, to more than 6,000 followers, with page references to what he saw as especially egregious liberal ideas in the bill, HR 3200…

“I don’t know the gentleman who put them together, but they’re everywhere,” said Jeff Crank of the Colorado office of Americans for Prosperity, which is fighting the health-reform bills…

But even some of his ideological soul mates say he has gone too far.

The Washington, D.C., office of Americans for Prosperity decided to do a line-by-line critique of Fleckman’s page-by- page critique, calling him out where the group thinks he has distorted the meaning of the proposed health bills.

“Page 29: This is PARTIALLY TRUE,” goes the AFP dressing-down of Fleckman. AFP’s analysis says the bill does not specifically outline rationing but adds, “These government imposed limits on benefits paid are the statutory groundwork for what could become rationing once costs inevitably spiral out of control in a government run system.”

In other places, his interpretation gets hammered with “This is FALSE.” Fleckman says on Page 50 that the bill gives free health care to “all non-US citizens, illegal or otherwise.” AFP counters that although the page might indicate costly programs, it “does not discuss providing coverage to non-citizens.”

Although many of Fleckman’s points are “serious and very accurate,” Kerpen said, “there were a lot of things on there we thought were false. . . . We wanted to make sure folks remained armed with this kind of information but give them the ones we thought were accurate and verifiable.”

“There’s enough bad in this bill that we don’t need to be untruthful or misrepresent it in any way,” Crank said.

Happy to see Jeff Crank belatedly feels that way–but where was he for the last three weeks? Where was he, for example, at his bus tour’s stop in Pueblo a week and a half ago, where a speaker on Crank’s own stage warned that “Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders–he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we’re going to call ours?”

Crank’s Americans for Prosperity has subsidized totally insane and untruthful claims about the health care reform bills pending in Congress from the beginning of this recess campaign. They have allowed assertions much worse than anything this guy Fleckenstein has claimed to parade unchallenged before the crowds they goad out for these rallies. For them to say “we don’t need to be untruthful” this late in the game, after everything they’ve already done and abetted, is nothing short of preposterous.

12 thoughts on “Jeff Crank “Sistah Souljahs” His Own Crazies”

WashParkPoet says:

August 17, 2009 at 7:04 pm

So on a day when the Obama administration is apparently walking away from public option, when Howard Dean is attacking Obama on the Today Show—-THIS is news?? Damn, let’s get to the bottom of the Crank/Fleckenstein controversy before we miss this opportunity to put them in their place.

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1. MADCO says:
  
  August 17, 2009 at 8:11 pm
  
  If the method corrupts the process, it’s news.
  
  Death panels?! oh no! No reform like that for me.
  
  And then we find out the claim is ridiculous on its face- but that message is buried in the opposition that has manifested.
  
  So uncovering the process, pointing out where and how it got corrupted, is a journalistically worthy effort. If it doesn’t succeed in critiquing the administration or anyone individual – so what?
  
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2. BlueCat says:
  
  August 18, 2009 at 12:04 am
  
  of the coordinated campaign to whip up hysteria (not to mention give bigots great excuses to villify mild mannered, slightly center left Obama) with blatant lies and distortions is news.
  
  Without that campaign we wouldn’t have to waste time explaining that there is no plan to force people onto a public plan or off medicare or off the VA plan, kill grandma, encourage her to kill herself, kill the disabled or force people to have abortions or even to pay for them with public funds, presently against the law, etc. etc. etc.
  
  If you don’t think that makes it harder to get support for a public plan or real reform in general, I don’t know what planet you’ve been on for the past month.
  
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The realist says:

August 17, 2009 at 7:34 pm

This is the purposeful, well-crafted M.O. of the opponents: Say extreme, totally-false things repeatedly, then when the lies are finally shown to be lies, back off a little. Too late — the damage has been done. See what you can do when you have no moral compass?!

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1. Half Glass Full says:
  
  August 19, 2009 at 3:57 pm
  
  Thanks for the reminder.
  
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WesternSlopeThought says:

August 17, 2009 at 7:36 pm

When you are losing the argument, just make crap up, use logic fallacies and lie.

“The only tool government has to contain costs of government run health care, is rationing. That means wait lists, denial of coverage, that means, to paraphrase the President, pain pills instead of needed surgery. -Josh Penry, at the Jeff Crank Lincoln Park trash America event

I’m wondering why Penry confuses insurance companies with government.

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1. Ralphie says:
  
  August 17, 2009 at 8:30 pm
  
  He’s always gotten his insurance from the government.
  
  Easy to get confused.
  
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  1. gertie97 says:
    
    August 17, 2009 at 9:54 pm
    
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2. redstateblues says:
  
  August 17, 2009 at 10:01 pm
  
  Penry, in trying to criticize what the government might do, outlines the problems that face the current health care system quite nicely.
  
  Thousands are waiting for the insurance companies to decide what conditions they will treat; thousands are being denied, or are are just outright losing their coverage. If that’s not rationing, I don’t know what is.
  
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BoulderRepublican says:

August 19, 2009 at 9:06 pm

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1. BoulderRepublican says:
  
  August 19, 2009 at 9:11 pm
  
  …I think you might wanna do some fact checking. I know it’s not convenient, but this girl is not “right-wing.” Rather, she is further left than Barney Frank (something I wasn’t aware was possible). Her Obama-as-Hitler poster has a logo on the bottom…
  
  http://www.LaRouchePAC.com
  
  I also like how Barney Frank publicly insulted and ridiculed his constituent. I know she’s insane, but elected representatives have to have some standard of decency.
  
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  1. RedGreen says:
    
    August 20, 2009 at 5:56 am
    
    LaRouchites are not left-wingers, though it’s charming to hear you parrot a Weekly Standard point about the nutjob Frank blasted. What you didn’t mention was, when it comes to health care, LaRouchies are in perfect alignment with the right-wing nutjobs: http://washingtonindependent.c…
    
    And yes, yes, I know LaRouchites claim to be Democrats, but you and I both know that’s an accident of history, kind of the same way Dave Koppel claims to be a Democrat.
    
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