Politics | health care reform These Kooks Aren't Fooling Anyone By Kevin Spak Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:49 PM CDT Copied In this Aug. 12, 2009 file photo, Brett Wian, of Boone, Iowa, asks Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa a question during a town hall meeting in Adel, Iowa. (AP Photo/Steve Pope, FILE) The “wild-eyed rants” reverberating through town hall meetings are pretty amusing. But do Republicans “really think the country is dopey enough to mistake microwave mobs staging Potemkin village protests” for actual American rage, asks Scot Lehigh of the Boston Globe. “If so, they’re delusional.” These crowds are lobbyist-generated Astroturf, coordinated by the same firms that once drubbed up “grassroots” support for energy deregulation on behalf of Enron. But even if you didn’t know that, “most people have a basic sense of civility,” Lehigh observes. They try to ask questions in an intelligent and respectful fashion, not by whooping belligerently. There are reasonable objections to Democrats’ health care proposals, but they’re not in these misinformed rants. “All we’ve learned here is something we already knew: This nation never has to worry about suffering from a shortage of kooks, cranks, and ideologues.” Read These Next Porn studio is US' 'most prolific copyright plaintiff.' Subject of an iconic, unsettling photo dies at 74. 8 Democrats make deal with GOP on the shutdown. Trial shows daily pill lowers LDL cholesterol just like injections. Report an error