There’s a video making its way through cyberspace that’s sure to the the first of many like it this election year. The video shows the reaction of participants in a town hall meeting to Congressman Brad Sherman’s declaration that he knew nothing about a Department of Justice dismissal of a case against of voter intimidation filed against the New Black Panther Party. One attendee asks Sherman a question, and others react, vociferously. He answers her question generally, as one would expect, but he makes the mistake of contending that he knows nothing about the dismissed case. Many in the audience react unfavorably to his denial of knowledge.
Here’s the two-minute video:
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UymN7t1kX3Q
The Congressman is Brad Sherman, Democrat of California’s 27th Congressional District. (Sherman won his district easily in 2008; he’s been in Congress since first winning the seat in November 2002.)
Sherman stays calm, but seems surprised at the reaction. The situation he faces will prove an increasingly common one, where a someone takes a video camera, someone else asks a question, and members of an audience react. Admittedly, some attendees are surely activists aware beforehand of some of these questions, but that does make the questions, or answers to them, any less legitimate.
For many politicians and bureaucrats, being challenged like this will prove new and uncomfortable, as a sycophantic press would not have reported an encounter like this. Now, these encounters are just a camera and a website away from widespread publication.
A few more episodes like this, and communities may be spared any number of lies or self-serving exaggerations.
Note to the Left — You’ll find yourselves using techniques just like this when conservatives are back in power. What some of you foolishly revile now, you’ll embrace when the balance of political representation shifts.
Hat tip to Powerline.com