Health Care Protester Exposed As Operative For Congressman's Opponent
Congressman Steve Kagen, (D-Wisc.) found himself interrupted during a town hall meeting on health care on Thursday evening which, considering the boisterous protests going on at these events all week, wasn't much of a surprise.
But towards the end of the Wisconsin Democrat's health care forum something a bit peculiar happened. A woman who initially identified herself as "just a mom from a few blocks away" who was "not affiliated with a political party" was outed by a reporter as a GOP operative who worked for Kagen's election opponent John Gard as well as the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee.
Why the protester, Heather Blish, didn't simply say she was a Republican isn't immediately obvious. It's more than reasonable to have philosophical differences with a Democratic member of Congress on health care matters, as it is to feel compelled enough to show up at a town hall event to express those differences.
But Blish's deliberate misleading of the local NBC reporter feeds into the suspicion that she - like other protesters at these events - are there because of political reasons not policy disagreements.
Kudos to the reporter for digging a bit in an effort to get a fuller story.
See video at the source