Chris Matthews on Progressive Critics of the Senate Health Care Bill, "I Don't Consider Them Democrats"

Today on MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews thought it might be fun to trot out the Obama administration's talking point du jour, that Democratic critics of the Senate health care bill are really just a bunch of irrational cheeto-eating surrender monkeys.

I don’t consider them Democrats, I consider them netroots, and they’re different. And if I see that they vote in every election or most elections, I’ll be worried. But I’m not sure that they’re regular grown-up Democrats. I think that a lot of those people are troublemakers who love to sit in the backseat and complain. They’re not interested in governing this country. They never ran for office, they’re not interested in working for somebody in public office. They get their giggles from sitting in the backseat and bitching.

Chris Matthews, surely you don't mean me? Of course, I do blog, and yes, I do get most of my news and information from blogs. Mostly because of pundits like you - who may or may not eat cheetos, but who surrendered their journalistic integrity a long, long time ago.

But Chris, if you're laughing at me, the joke's on you.

See, if you had been paying even the slightest attention, you'd understand that some of the most vocal critics of the Senate health care reform bill worked the hardest to get Barack Obama elected last year. We are Progressives, Independents, Decline-to-State, and Centrists. We vote religiously. We give generously. And we're scared to death that the health care bills making their way ever so slowly through congress are going to end up making the system worse rather than better.

At first we were patient. We held out hope that our President knew what he was doing, that he would keep up his end of the implied contract we entered into when we helped get him elected. We expected Change, we expected to be respected, empowered and included, we expected him to fight, and we expected to join him in that fight.

None of this has happened. And so we're going to speak truth to power. You may not like it, the White House may not like it, but you both underestimate our power at your peril. Because we're not troublemakers, we're organizers.

We know how to bypass the main steam media and the DSCC, co-opt OFA's resources for activism we believe in, raise money-bombs for Alan Grayson and to go after Blue Dog Dems who oppose real health care reform. We know how to canvass and how to phone bank. We can, and will, support a multitude of primary challengers against the entrenched corporate interests that just happen to call themselves Democrats.

The White House may not be afraid of us like they are big Pharma and the health insurance industry, but maybe, just maybe they should be.