Here we go again, folks. The liberal Washington establishment and its Big Media allies once again are trying to smear and demonize millions of Americans who oppose the radical Obama agenda. If you are against growing government power and higher taxes, and are concerned about elite disdain for our Constitution, well you must be a thug, racist, know-nothing or KKK sympathizer.

The latest effort to silence dissent began over the weekend when liberal Congressmen claimed they were spat on and suffered racial slurs when they walked through a crowd of conservative demonstrators from the Capitol to their offices. I strongly condemn such behavior, but there is little or no evidence that it happened. And if some jerk(s) did commit such offenses, it is obvious to any fair observer that they were not representative of the 30,000 people who came to Washington, D.C., to voice their opposition to Obama’s takeover of healthcare.

That crowd looked to be largely a middle class gathering of typical Americans, exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and petition their elected officials. The most frequently voiced chant was “Kill The Bill!” Numerous polls indicated that the overwhelming majority of the American people shared that sentiment.

By the way, the members of Congress who marched through the crowd would normally have used the underground tunnel from the Capitol to their offices. Normally they don’t want to be bothered by pesky citizens. Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid famously said that he knows when it is summer in Washington because the tourists sweat and stink too much.

But on Sunday, these liberals chose to walk through the upset protestors in the hopes, I suspect, of provoking an incident. Nonetheless, if someone used a racial slur, I condemn it. But I also have no doubt that such a bigot in no way represents the heartfelt concerns millions of Americans feel regarding the direction our country is being taken.

The effort to smear conservatives picked up momentum in the last few days after bricks were thrown through the windows of several district offices of Democrats who voted for ObamaCare. Again, this type of vandalism is unacceptable and also not representative of the millions of Americans who don’t want more and more of our economy and lives run by liberal politicians and Washington bureaucrats. To smear these Americans because of a few thuggish acts is simply a dishonest effort to silence Middle America. Conservative Senator Jim Bunning was vehemently attacked in the media a few weeks ago when he blocked a spending bill. In short order, he was the target of death threats, but the press continued to pour on the invective.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I received dozens of notes from people around the country whose homes and cars had been vandalized because they were displaying conservative signs. The media treated each incident as an isolated event. No one suggested the vandalism was the natural result of super-heated rhetoric by the Obama campaign and leftwing groups against conservatives and eight years of comparing George W. Bush to Hitler. And where was the media’s concern about vandalism of churches during the campaign over Proposition 8 in California?

Throwing a brick through a window is a crime and the person responsible should be aggressively prosecuted. Intimidating voters on Election Day, as the New Black Panther Party did at a polling place in Philadelphia, is also a crime. But Obama’s Justice Department dropped the case and has stonewalled any attempt to find out who allowed this violation of voting rights to go unanswered.

A Justice Department unwilling to prosecute voter intimidation when it comes from the radical Left is a much greater threat to our republic than one idiot throwing a rock into an empty office.

By this morning, the effort to smear you was becoming downright bizarre. Sarah Palin was being attacked because she announced the names of the congressmen she is “targeting” and wrote on her blog, “Don’t retreat, reload.” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is getting slapped because he said let’s get Pelosi ready for “the firing line” in November. Get it? We are supposed to believe that using words like “targeting” and “firing line” is somehow an invitation to violence.

I have been in Washington for 35 years, and the phrase “targeting” a congressman has been used frequently by both parties. At a June 2008 rally, candidate Obama brought the crowd to its feet when he said, “If they [Republicans] bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Now did Obama really mean that Democrats would bring guns to the debate? Of course not.

The political Left, including Pelosi and Reid, have been using supercharged rhetoric against Middle America for a long time. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat Leader Steny Hoyer called town hall protestors “un-American.” Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid said they were “evil mongers.” You may recall that during the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama suggested that some voters in Pennsylvania were “bitter” and “clinging to guns and religion.”

Rhetoric like that has made a lot of slow-to-anger Americans, most of whom had never attended a demonstration until last year, more than a little peeved. And the media don’t care. In fact, liberal talking heads have mocked their fellow citizens with crude references. The Left is losing the debate and so it has reverted to its favorite tactics, using race and false charges of extremism to intimidate and silence the opposition.

It won’t work. Last month, a CNN poll found that 56% of Americans felt that “the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”

Here’s breaking news: Rep. Eric Cantor, the second-highest ranking House Republican, says that his district office was shot at last night. Now, who would have done that? Cantor was a leading opponent of ObamaCare. He is also a Jew. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the Left to denounce the growing anti-Semitism in its ranks.

I promise you that I will vehemently fight, and do my best to expel, anyone from the conservative cause who is a bigot or a thug. But I will not surrender to a leftwing attempt to smear you and the millions of other good and decent Americans who share our traditional values.

As I was watching the Super Bowl and saw the opening coin toss, I was reminded that conservatives had better be careful about the White House’s offensive game. This administration is constantly on the attack. It’s very good at manipulating events to its advantage and changing the rules mid-game.

For example, President Obama talked about healthcare reform during a pre-game interview with CBS’s Katie Couric. He said, “I want to … have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.” Yesterday, the White House announced plans for a “healthcare summit” on February 25th. According to various reports, the president has promised that this summit will be televised live, presumably on C-Span.

Last week I wrote that the administration and congressional Democrats had totally ignored any ideas conservatives put forward during last year’s healthcare debate. In his statement to Couric, Obama essentially admitted as much. If they had been receptive to conservative ideas and input all along, then they never would have attempted a Big Government takeover of the healthcare industry and this summit would not be necessary.

But when conservatives said they were willing to work with the president, they weren’t talking about TV shows. As we saw from last week’s televised Q&A between the president and House conservatives, the entire event was staged for Obama’s benefit. Conservative members of Congress were faceless, off-camera voices, while the president stood behind the podium like a smug college professor lecturing his pupils. He wasn’t there to negotiate in good faith; he was there to score points with his leftwing base and convince the public that he was “reaching out.”

When conservatives said they wanted discussions to be televised, they didn’t mean choreographed Obama campaign rallies. They meant, as Candidate Obama promised, all key meetings in which substantive decisions were being made.

Call me skeptical, but I expect this summit is just another sham attempt to give Obama the appearance of bi-partisanship. The media will sing his praises and give him as much cover as possible. But the differences between the two parties are tremendous and can’t be glossed over in one made-for-TV “summit.” I suspect the president knows that, and all this is just for show – a play fake that allows Obama to say “I tried” and sets the stage for liberals to “go nuclear,” ramming ObamaCare through using budget reconciliation rules.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t falling for it. In a statement this weekend, Sen. McConnell responded to the summit suggestion by saying, “If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill, and with it their goal of slashing a half trillion dollars from Medicare and raising a half trillion in new taxes. The American people want lower costs, not Medicare cuts and tax increases. Setting these proposals aside would be a sign that the administration and Democrats in Congress are listening to the country and are truly interested in a bipartisan approach.” Stay tuned.

Yesterday, President Obama went on the attack against two favorite enemies – corporate greed and Wall Street. Obama stepped up his rhetoric against banks and financial firms, attacking large salaries and bonuses yet again and proposing a new bank fee. The president’s revisionist history regarding the cause of the financial crisis was astonishing. It was matched only by his over-the-top pitchfork populism. Here’s a sample:

“We want our money back, and we’re going to get it.  And that’s why I’m proposing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be imposed on major financial firms until the American people are fully compensated for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street.  If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers.”

The deception is breathtaking! Sure a number of big banks got bailouts, but most have repaid those loans with interest. And those still in debt to Uncle Sam are answering to the “pay czar,” who is capping salaries and bonuses. Most of the money owed to the American people is owed by the unions for the takeover of General Motors and Chrysler. But instead the president wants to pick winners and losers. The winners are his union buddies, and the losers are [the] now-profitable banks.

But if the president is so upset about extravagant pay and bonuses and so committed to protecting the taxpayer, where is his outrage at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The president is so concerned about the $120 billion shortfall in the TARP program, but Fannie and Freddie have put the taxpayers on the hook for $2 trillion. Meanwhile, the top executives at these government-run outfits are getting $42 million in compensation, with bonuses of $2 million!

I’m pleased to report that 70 conservative members of Congress are demanding that the administration hold executives at Fannie and Freddie to the same standard to which they hold other private firms. But don’t hold your breath. Over the years, Fannie and Freddie executives have been major donors to liberal candidates (with Barack Obama being one of their top beneficiaries), and they have been run by well-connected liberals like Rahm Emanuel and Franklin Raines.

Rather than intimidating and investigating Big Business, we need to stop punishing success, stop picking winners and losers and start investigating Big Government!

Yesterday, on the steps of the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi and her liberal colleagues unveiled their healthcare plan, H.R. 3962. Here are my thoughts on what transpired at the press conference, and the content of the bill.

• Pelosi’s press conference was an hour long, and only people on her personal “RSVP list” were allowed to attend. Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said, “The striking thing that occurred today is when the Speaker had her announcement and unveiled their public option, she did so on public grounds in the West Front of the Capitol and frankly denied access to the public.”
• The thirty Democratic members with Pelosi at the press conference did not answer a single question from the press.
• The bill has had an extra thousand pages of statist policy added, making it nearly 2,000 pages long. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, said, “So how much takeover can you cram into 2,000 pages? By comparison, the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, which costs us $800 billion annually was less than 300 pages long.” What is hidden in the Pelosi bill?
• Members of Congress are not required to enroll in the government plan. The bill says that members can enroll in the public option if they want. Don’t expect any of them to do this, however.
• A 2.5 percent tax on medical devices will also be passed on to Americans. Taxes on hearing aids, heart valves and wheelchairs will all increase and will hurt Americans regardless of income.
• Under this version, working-class families will face higher health care premiums. Millions of Americans will also lose their current plans and senior citizens will see Medicare cut by $500 billion.

The House will be voting on this bill soon, so I strongly encourage you to contact your representatives at 202-224-3121. Call even if you have already done so, and share your thoughts with your elected representatives. The liberals in Washington are trying to transform the United States in their Big Government image. Now is the time to make your voice heard.