Jonah Goldberg:

Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured "Astroturf" stunts, she replied, "I think they're Astroturf. You be the judge. They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."

Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protestors are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of ObamaCare, but she's also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

How does that work? What public relations genius says: "OK, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!"

Charges of "astroturfing" are especially amusing coming from those who promoted a "community organizer" — an admitted paid full-time worker who takes a group non-organized citizens and attempts to organize them, top-down, into supporting some particular cause — for President.

Of course, just because something is laughably stupid doesn't mean many people won't buy it. Hillary Clinton said a "vast right-wing conspiracy" had manufactured the Lewinsky scandal out of nothing, and I had friends (Democrats) who swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. ("Look there are people who are opposed to the Clintons!" "Yes," I would respond, "those are called conservatives. I'm one of them. We're not a 'conspiracy'; we're just a group of voters who disagree with what they're doing. And we're not a dark force behind every mistake Bill makes.")