Back in LA from San Francisco this week, I finally had time to watch the rest of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Maybe it's because I had just read Jim Hoft's post on how Obama groupie Chris Matthews followed the example of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in attacking Rick Santelli, the latest individual to gain popular acclaim for taking on the president's policies, that I saw the similarity between the two situations.

In the celebrated Frank Capra cinema classic, as soon as Senator Smith (James Stewart) make clear he intends to oppose a project the Taylor Machine (from his unnamed home state) has had slipped into a spending bill, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) cranks up his media machine to destroy the honest critic.

It seems that something similar happens every time someone rises to prominence by raising honest questions about Barack Obama's policies. First, Democratic hacks and the MSM went after Joe the Plumber when his questions of then-Democratic candidate led the future president to acknowledge his redistributionist tendencies, wanting to "spread the wealth."

Now, after colorfully raising questions about the president's foreclosure plan, Santelli began to feel the wrath of the Obama/MSNBC machine.

First, the White House Press Secretary tells him he should read the president's foreclosure plan before criticizing it, leading Glenn to crack, "Which is rich, since that's more than anyone in Congress did before voting last week . . "

Noting the Obama Machine going after yet another critic, Dan Riehl offers:

. . . we're seeing a WH that looks like it's being run more like a Chicago Ward, than the house that most presidents lived in. This is about attacking everyone and everything that opposes you. In the end, it demeans the office and raises serious concerns as to whether these people can be trusted with the power they now have.

Cross posted at GayPatriot.