Not too terribly long ago, the Democrats were up in arms over Bush, the war and all manner of side issues, and back then, people like Nancy Pelosi were pretty sure Dissent was good:

My how times have changed.  Now, dissent is fascist and unamerican.

What the Liberals once hailed as the most pure form of patriotism is now the most hated and reviled.

Pelosi and Hoyer in a an op ed at USA Today were clear that they (now) consider this to be an unthinkable pass time.

Even SoS Hillary Clinton has been on record contradicting that belief:

We hear tale of how the conservatives are planting paid operatives, how they are astroturfing, and are not “real”.  And yet it is the democrats that are advertising in Craigslist for people to work for health care reform.  See for yourself.  Here are a couple samples:

There are thousands of these ads making me wonder who is paying?   I wish I was getting paid that much to protest.  Heck I am not getting paid anything.

And even Obama has apparently begun planting questions at his own Townhalls…again.  The cute young girl who gave him his softball mean signs question  just happens to be the daughter of a Democrat campaigner and Obama donor.

How convenient.

Obama himself cannot make up his mind.  On one hand he (or his staff at least) denounces the Pelosi/Hoyer op ed and on the other he tells conservatives to sit down and shut up.

And I can go for days about the utterly faulty premise that the health care mess is somehow just the fault of the Republicans.

The whole issue has approached (and run right over the top of) absurd.

I close with this SF Gate piece on this as well as the informant attitude also called for by the Whitehouse:

Dissent is patriotic - not

Imagine it’s four years ago and an aide to President George W. Bush posted a blog on the Whitehouse.gov Web site that bemoaned Internet criticism of the Iraq war, then continued: “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversations.

Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about anti-war protests that seem fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

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Now I don’t think Obamaland was working on an “enemies list” - as some conservatives have charged. But I do want to note how deftly the left has abandoned its old rallying cry, “Dissent is patriotic.”

Democratic leaders have taken to dissing health care dissenters who show up at town-hall meetings conducted by members of Congress visiting their districts - and not just for the boorish behavior of the loudmouths.

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It’s laughable: Democrats discrediting protests because - ooooooh - they’re organized. Last year, weren’t these same folks guffawing about Jesus being a community organizer?

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Facts are stubborn things. But Democratic leaders are not stubborn. If the Bush White House had asked Americans to “flag” critics, you know that Pelosi and Boxer would have demanded that the Bushies spike that blog. But now, with their man in the White House, they’re up with the organization. As long as it’s their organization.

Read the whole thing, it’s a perfect take on the hypocrisy at play in DC.