Debate Techniques

As the Kansas City Star reports (h/t Ben Smith), Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita were vandalized over the weekend; assailants allegedly hurled a brick inscribed with anti-Obama rhetoric through a plate-glass window. A former militia leader took responsibility for the attack, which mirrored another, on a Democratic committee headquarters in Rochester. Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter (an obvious target because of the controvery over the so-called Slaughter Solution) and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona also had their offices vandalized.

...Williams and Odom (of the Tea Party and Liberty First organizations) both dismissed the argument that incidents of racism, homophobia and vandalism threaten to tarnish the movement. Williams said charges that Tea Party protesters hurled epithets at Democrats like John Lewis and Barney Frank were unproven, then suggested it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that lefty infiltrator seeking to sully the Tea Partyers had been the real culprit. “There's a fringe element in every movement and every group in history,” Odom says.

If people buy this "lefty infiltrator" story, expect Tea Party fundraising to drop way way down. Still, that's Roberts Rules of Order - if rational debate doesn't get your point across, then the next allowable step is always deny the things you said before and vandalize the opposing debate team. And cut their propane gas lines! I mean after all, passing laws with a majority of votes is terrorism.