Amy Menefee is Director of Communications for Americans for Prosperity. Before joining AFP, she directed communications for the Galen Institute. She was previously managing editor for the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute. A journalist by training, she has been a frequent commentator on radio and television and written op-eds on economic issues.

Menefee’s media appearances include Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “Newswatch” program. She has done more than 200 radio interviews including the nationally syndicated “Michael Medved Show,” “The Lynne Breidenbach Show,” “Dateline Washington” and “The Martha Zoller Show.” Her op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, Detroit Free Press, Human Events Online, Townhall.com and other outlets.

Her background includes covering federal, state and local government. She has reported for Congressional Quarterly’s CQ Homeland Security, a daily Web-based publication, and The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. She worked as a reporter and assistant editor in the state Capitol bureau of The Columbia Missourian.

She holds an M.A. in public policy journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism (Columbia, Mo.) and a B.A. in journalism/mass communication from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Menefee is originally from Macon, Ga., and resides in Alexandria, Va.

But my point still stands. Maybe the people who killed John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Dr. King, Matthew Shepard, and, most recently, George Tiller, were just moms and dads doing their civic duty to protest. Maybe Tim McVeigh was just misunderstood because he couldn’t get his questions answered.

I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with examples of conservative activists killed by liberal haters … take your time … I’ll be here.

In the interim, I feel your pain. You now know exactly how I felt during the eight years of the Bush administration, where town halls were stacked with fawning fans and friendly media, where a president stared America in the eyes and lied through his teeth while friends of mine were killed in a war that should never have been fought, all the while driving our economy into the black hole we’re suffering from today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgPWg25R_Xc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ScYY__oyk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Q3p6jClQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5IInBP9D_s&feature=related

The protesters who are showing up at these townhall meetings are mostly moms and dads wanting their questions answered but are getting shut out. Getting angry at a government who doesn’t care what you have to say is, in fact, normal…

I wonder if that’s because conservative protest tend toward threats and violence when they don’t get their way?

When conservatives protest government, it’s thuggery.

You people are intellectually bankrupt.

As one of the curators of this blog, I would like to add the following (and, hopefully, last words) on this post:

We aim to keep things civil here and they almost always are.

On the other hand, robust political debate will some times get heated and we’re certainly not going to police every word that appears here.

In my judgment, the only word that exceeds the bounds of decency on this post tonight is the “P” word introduced by Dallas. I have left it up only because I think it’s use illustrates my point.

The reference used by James Protzman — of someone being kept on “a short leash” is used in politics, business, sports and the news media everyday both with and without the word “dog,” which Protzman did NOT use.

It is regularly used to describe a relationship between a boss and en employee, two politicians, or a funder and someone he or she funds. It is not a personal attack of the kind that Dallas is attempting to turn it into. When I googled the phrase wirth some well known figures, it returned hundreds of hits in all sorts of responsible media.

If I had known that was what James had actually said, I would have told Dallas that when he called me at home tonight. As it was, I told him, I would look into it.

Well, I have looked into it now and I must say that for someone who has such an incredibly loud and energetic voice, Dallas has a remarkably and ridiculously thin skin.

All I can say is: Dude, just chill out. If that’s the worst thing that someone says about you in the profession you have chosen — professional political rabble-rousing — you will have led a charmed life.

Everyone go to bed.