Hot Button

Did she say that?

“What’s wrong with Hillary is one week too long on this African hellish tour that she’s on. Think of it from the human point of view: She is in her second week. She’s hot. She is feeling fat. She had this horrible business where she suddenly lost it a bit over the whole Bill thing.”

- Daily Beast Editor Tina Brown, remarking on why she thinks Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blew up at a meeting in Africa during which she was asked about her husband’s thoughts on foreign policy. It later came out the questioner meant to ask Mrs. Clinton to relay President Obama’s thoughts.

Plant politics

Heather Blish was shocked when big-name television personalities labeled her as a Republican operative after she made an impassioned plea to her congressman to quit letting Washington intervene in the free market during a town-hall meeting.

The problem?

Mrs. Blish, a graphic designer, quit volunteering for the Republican Party last year because she was so disillusioned with Republican politics.

“The Republican Party wants nothing to do with me any more than I want anything to do with them,” she told The Washington Times.

But that didn’t matter to the local NBC reporter who aired the television piece about Mrs. Blish that was picked up by left-leaning outlets far and wide as evidence of dirty politics.

It all began with a segment by Kristoffer Engebretson, a television reporter for the local NBC affiliate, who covered Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen’s meeting in Kewaunee, Wis. The TV spot was teased by a desk anchor who warned, “There were allegations of opponents being planted in the crowd” at the town hall.

Mrs. Blish was presented as a top example of such nefarious activities. Mr. Engebretson said Mrs. Blish “introduced herself as just a mom from a few blocks away not affiliated with any political party” but that information about her on social networking sites, such as Facebook, “showed something different.”

Mr. Engebretson strongly suggested she wasn’t truthful, citing information he found on LinkedIn.com, a business networking Web site, showing she had worked as vice chairman of her county’s Republican Party and volunteered for a Republican candidate in the past.

“Again, Blish introduced herself as just a mom with no affiliation with any party,” he emphasized again in the report.

“The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC embraced the story during a show dedicated to exposing Republican operatives’ intent on disrupting town-hall meetings for political effect. “Ta-da! Journalism!” the host declared, smiling broadly, after showing the local news package. “Congratulations to Kristoffer Engebretson of that local station in Green Bay for going the extra step to find out what was behind the incivility in his town rather than just covering it like a ping-pong match.”

Story Continues →