The debate over showing a spine

God love the Democratic Party. They have opposing movements out there attacking them for everything from trying to kill everyone's grandma, to calling them fascists, Marxists, communists, socialists, they don't even believe the President was born in this country, that he tried to indoctrinate schoolchildren, use health care reform in place of slavery reparations, and they've basically announced they'll say anything in order to stop any movement on possibly the biggest Democratic priority in the post-WW2 period. So what do Democrats do in response to this? They have an internal debate about the possibility of responding to these attacks in a strong manner....maybe.

Facing a near-daily barrage of attacks from conservative opponents, White House officials are engaged in an internal debate over how hard to hit back, even as they have grown increasingly aggressive in countering allegations they deem to be absurd.

After brushing aside criticism during the presidential campaign that they tried to keep candidate Barack Obama too far above the fray -- and with memories of the abundance of media coverage during the Clinton years -- administration officials are accelerating their efforts to anticipate and respond to the most sharp-edged charges.

The White House officials are eager to avoid the perception that the president is directly engaging critics who appear to speak only for a vocal minority...

Sure it must seem like these attacks are so crazy that they'll negate themselves. I mean the Tea bag leader went on TV yesterday to prove how mainstream and not crazy his movement was...and ended up calling the President an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief." But don't you think, with Republican leaders echoing these attacks, and with the media treating them as legitimate debate, that you should maybe spend a minute or two vigorously batting them down?

No? Don't want to make it seem like your engaging a vocal minority? Even though that minority seems to encompass the entire elected Republican party and conservative media establishment? Even though this strategy of "take abuse, hope someone recognizes what's being said isn't true" has helped drive down support for health care? Still unsure? Good plan. I mean it's not like there's numerous examples in recent history of these types of attacks working to derail progressive legislation and the various efforts at health care reform undertaken by several Presidents, now is there?