More Tantrums, More Headlines

So the usual suspects yelled at Newt yesterday and got attention. Congratulations.

But wait: who's that in the photo?

David Goodner of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund is escorted out by security during a news conference by Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at the Iowa State Capitol Wednesday.

And wasn't it just one month ago that he said he was stepping back, after a dumb-mistake arrest?

My issue here isn't with the drug arrest -- I cut him some slack then and said that what he did shouldn't even be against the law.

No, my issue is with the disingenuousness and hypocrisy. I expect a hair-splitting response along the lines of he didn't yell at Newt as an Occupy member, he did it as a CCI member.

KCCI (no relation) cuts to the chase: "Political experts said while some protesters claim all the shouting and booing directed to the presidential candidates is a form of democracy, it may just simply be bad manners."

There's a difference between a genuine mass movement -- which Occupy is in many places -- and a small cluster of people who, frankly, get their rocks off by screaming and getting arrested. And no, the "corporations are people" soundbite isn't worth the degradation of the political process.

Update: Ed Fallon says it more eloquently:

When it comes to social change movements, I challenge each of us, myself included, to continually ask "What would Gandhi do? What would ML King do?" Neither of these role models of non-violent action yelled, heckled, or charged at their opponents. We must remain impeccably non-violent if we are to win the hearts and minds of the people.