Ah. Via the magic of tea-bagging, "conservatives" have discovered the joys of disruptive political protest, something they’ve been pretending to be better than for what, nine years? Decades? A half century? A century? Forever? Anyhow, nowadays they’re really into it.

I don’t think they’re really all that good at it, though, at least insofar as it’s possible to be "good" at it. They’ve gotten lots of TV time, sure, which is one of the goals of protest in the modern age. And good for them. But they don’t really come off very well on video. They come across like Grandpa Simpson, only angrier, more incoherent, and sillier. They want to be Taken Seriously as Informed Constituents petitioning for a Redress of Legitimate Grievances, which is a problem because they’re stone paranoid and proudly ignorant.

Take for instance this incident that has Greatter Wingnuttia pretending it’s some sort of Win for Their Side. Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire Congresswoman, had a townhall meeting at which a guy got thrown out because, frankly, he was being a disruptive asshole, as the video makes clear. And he was hardly the only one, as the video also makes perfectly clear. Shea-Porter is shouted down before she can complete two consecutive sentences. The guy who got thrown out was interrupting and being obnoxious. As it turns out, he’s a retired NYC cop — and as such, should really have known better, particularly when telling the officers escorting him out of the room "keep your hands off of me." Serious protesters, especially when they’re in NYC, know it’s not quite safe to say such things.

Two other interesting tidbits. One. Wingnuts are accusing Shea-Porter of hypocrisy because she is a protester herself, even having once been thrown out of a George Bush event. And what did she do? Well…

Two women were removed from a Bush appearance at Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, N.H., on Feb. 16. Carol Shea-Porter and Susan Mayer wore sweaters when they entered, but removed them to expose T-shirts with the message, "Turn your back on Bush."

The women reportedly caused no disruptions and sat through the entire forum. According to news reports, event staffers sat around them, apparently trying to block the news media’s view of their T-shirts, and at the end of the program they were taken out a side door by security personnel.

She is not the hypocrite here. But that’s not even the best part. Here’s a press report of the event. This bit, I think, tells you what these brave, civil, patriotic dissenters are all about:

The tone of the forum was set early when audience members began shouting over 84-year-old Germaine Duval of Manchester, who told of having a stroke while she was driving near Livingston Park.

A hospital stay left her with thousands of dollars in bills, although she has Medicare, she said. "You have to do something about the gap (in Medicare coverage)," she said, but several people began shouting she had gone over the two-minute limit set for speaking.

Which speaks for itself.