Yesterday, TPM's Josh Marchall called Ambinder out when he claimed that today's GOP min-mobs, formed to shout down Democrats in public, are doing exactly what Democrats did when they opposed Bush's push to privatize Social Security.

Except that that's false.

Wrote Marshall:

I watched those events unfold pretty closely. And what the Dems did in 2005 consisted almost entirely of protest outside town halls and anti-privatization activists trying to get into the meetings to ask questions to pin members of Congress down on their position. What made it so uncomfortable for Republican and some Democratic members of Congress is that they got questions they didn't want to answer.

Did some meetings get heated? Sure. But these weren't organized attempts to shut down the meetings themselves.

Ambinder's response?

Democrats were able to defeat President Bush on Social Security because they found a way to capitalize on inherent skepticism about forcing that cherished institution to change. Make no mistake, the effort to defeat Social Security reform won because of a mix of organic anxiety, inorganic organizing, focus grouped-messaging and wealthy people and interests writing large checks. Today, we're at a similar juncture, except for the fact that the wealthy, organized/organic/inorganic protesters are on the other side of an issue. Democrats may have used different tactics -- protesting outside of places as opposed to inside of them -- but that's not terribly germane.

Ugh. Several problems as Ambinder continues to strain to equate the opposition to Social Security and today's astroturf push to shut down debate on health care reform. First, is Ambinder really suggesting that today's health care system is a “cherished institution”? He seems to be because claiming the anti-privatization push and the anti-health care push are exactly the same, Ambinder notes that Dems won because skeptical Americans didn't want to changed Social Security, a cherished institution. The implication, of course, is that the GOP today is succeeding the same way by raising concerns about another “cherished institution,” health care companies (?!).

Second, while backtracking from yesterday's comparison, Ambinder suddenly thinks it's insignificant that the right-wing is using “different tactics”; that the GOP is forming mini-mobs and Dems never did that when opposing Social Security reform. Suddnely that point is not “terribly germane.”

Excuse me but the only reason Ambinder is writing about this issue is because of the mini-mobs. If conservatives were politely objecting to health care reform at Dem town halls, would anybody in the media care? And would anybody in the media be pushing the false claim that there's genuine grassroots opposition spreading across the country?

Of course not. The mini-mobs are the story, but Ambinder tries to dismiss them as irrelevant.

Also, as one of Ambinder's readers noted:

Marc. Marc. Marc. It's not that astroturfing exists, it's that you conveniently ignore it until you are challenged over your poor journalism