In the Astroturfing War Room

A small boiler room in a basement in Chicago has two desks and a long table. It is an office run by Mel. Mel sometimes calls it the, ‘if the boss ever tells the truth rapid response war room and Astroturf center.’ Mel and his assistant, Marty had seen no action until Wednesday. They mainly sit around and read newspapers. Marty says their job is, “to do the reading that Eskimo bitch won’t.”
Mel and Marty have taken to calling Wednesday ‘Redistribution Day.’ It threw them into a panic of activity ever since Mel asked, “What if everyone starts talking about spreading the wealth around and it becomes a major theme in this election.”
“I think a lot of people would be energized by that,” replied Marty, “I know my two Trot uncles will love it.”
“It doesn’t matter how many Trotskyite uncles you have, Marty. Both of us will be lucky to work on a school board election if this turns into a referendum on the redistribution of wealth.”
Mel and Marty started working the phones and soon the focus became Joe the plumber instead of Obama’s lapse into honesty. DU, dKos and MoveOn all got busy spreading endless stories about Joe. Network anchors interviewed Joe and kept the coverage folksy but away from Barack.
Mel got a bonus check and he told Marty, “I hope you were paying attention. We took a story about an inexplicable tax policy and made it into a story about an unlicensed plumber that Senator Joe doesn’t trust. Did you notice how we even got some stories on the net saying we'd put Joe out of work? That'll put the fear of God into those red neck motherfuckers. Like my teacher, Saul, used to say, ‘We’re fucking over America one working man at a time.’”