The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen writes of the White House's request for citizens to report "fishy" emails to flag@whitehouse.gov:
The very idea that the White House would be "collecting names" is about as legitimate as the idea that the president is a not a natural-born citizen. As nutty Republican conspiracy theories go, this was even more headache-inducing than most.
If you're just joining us, a White House blog post encouraged folks who come across lies, scare tactics, and misinformation to email the White House Office of Health Reform. The point, obviously, is a renewed effort to combat deceptive tactics and set the record straight for those concerned about the facts.
More misinformation was spread about the Patriot Act than any other piece of recent legislation. Wouldn't Benen, and the rest of the left, have been frothing at the mouth about Big Brother if the Bush White House had asked people to snitch on their fellow citizens for sending out "fishy" emails about the Patriot Act? And, as Major Garrett asked Robert Gibbs yesterday, does the White House press shop really need to be examining the emails of U.S. citizens to find out what's being said about a particular piece of legislation?