August 5, 2009: Texas Republican Party Celebrates Riotous Confrontation at Recent Health Care Reform Meeting

Screenshot of Texas GOP Web site featuring Doggett protest video, from August 5, 2009. [Source: Think Progress (.com)]Though Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele says that the Republican Party has no ties to, or involvement with, the recent spate of raucous and near-riotous protests against health care reform (seeAugust 5, 2009, June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009), the Web site of the Republican Party of Texas features a front page celebration of the recent disruption at a town hall hosted by Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett (see August 1, 2009). A photo of Doggett on the site links to a YouTube video of protesters screaming and shouting at him, hosted on the Texas Republican Party’s official YouTube account, txgoptv. The video concludesd with the words, “Produced by the Republican Party of Texas,” and features a legal disclaimer that proclaims the video was paid for the by the Republican Party of Texas. [Republican Party of Texas, 8/2009; Think Progress, 8/6/2009]