White House Uses Saul Alinsky Tactics to Attack CNBC Reporter Who Dares to Question Obama

We are living in dangerous times.

Yesterday, CNBC reporter Rick Santelli made headlines by calling for a “Chicago Tea Party.” Personally, I loved it. Here is the full video:

Today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded in a manner that simultaneously scares and sickens me:

Let’s dissect this for a moment. Gibbs’ first response is: “I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives, or in what house he lives.” In writing, the question is rhetorical, irrelevant, and nonsensical. I don’t know where Mr. Santelli lives either, but I have a few guesses. I’m willing to guess that Mr. Santelli lives in a home that: (1) he can afford; and, (2) he earned through some combination of hard worker and use of his God-given talents. I’m also willing to guess that, unlike President Obama, Mr. Santelli did not purchase his home through a sweet-heart deal with a Chicago slumlord who has since been indicted on corruption charges. I’m also willing to guess that, unlike the Democrat Chairman of the Senate Housing Committee, Mr. Santelli did not get a sweetheart mortgage from now-defunct Countrywide.

But Mr. Gibbs’ words aren’t the point. They don’t capture the bass tones of his contempt. The unstated, tonal implication is that anything Mr. Santelli says about housing is a non-starter because he is rich and greedy and therefore in not entitled to any opinion.

From there, Mr. Gibbs continues on to accuse Mr. Santelli of not having read the President’s plan. He condescendingly holds up a copy of the plan and says: “It’s available on the White House web site, and I would encourage him to download it, hit print, and begin to read it.” Again, the printed words don’t capture the mocking tone of contempt. On the video, pay close attention to the way he says “read it.” (Funny, but I don’t remember Mr. Gibbs saying “read it” this time last week when they rushed the porkulus bill to the floor so quickly that it was physically impossible for any member of Congress to have read it.) The implication here is that Mr. Santelli is not only rich, evil, and selfish, but also stupid and illiterate. If Mr. Santelli knew how to read, he would obviously agree with President Obama’s plan–as all right-thinking people do.

The sum total of this exchange is that Gibbs cannot even begin to defend the plan on its merits. His only defense is to take the offensive and launch ad hominem attacks on anyone who dares to question the Administration. This is scary, and it is right out of Saul Alinsky, the intellectual Godfather (and, yes, the mob allusion is intentional) to former-community-organizer Barack Obama. Alinsky’s best-known work was Rules for Radicals. Rule Number 14 was as follows:

Pick the target, freeze it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Two thumbs way, way up for Rick Santelli–my new favorite journalist.

Oh, and one more thought: