grassroots? or astroturf?

Aaaand ... we're back to health care.

So in the middle of all the Ted Kennedy memorials, I came across this article on Politico about the more-than-500 rallies planned in the next week by the Democratic National Committee, and its "grassroots" organizations, Organizing for America and Health Care for America Now. The article even referred to these organizations as "grassroots."

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Senator Durbin (D-Illinois) just recently call Republican organized opposition "astroturf"? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Astroturf: a faked outpouring of public reaction about health care organized by insurance companies and other opposition groups to the health care legislation, as opposed to a natural uprising of opinion. But the Democrats can organize all they want in favor of the bill, and it's "grassroots."

Maybe I'm just in a generally irritable mood right now, but I sent this email directly to the writer rather than just commenting on the article's page:

Please have the decency to NOT use the term "grassroots" in reference to the top-down organization of the Democrats, especially after Mr. Durbin and other Democratic leadership insulted ANY opposition to their health care legislation from the general public as "astroturf."

It's a blatant contradiction to say that anything organized by the DNC is "grassroots."

I'm an independent and I'm CERTAINLY not in the back pocket of insurance companies. I oppose the Democrats' health care legislation because it's so outrageously unaffordable that it's going to crush any economic recovery that may be coming along.

And you can be sure that I'm more "grassroots" than anything the Democrats put together because I actually state my own thoughts and opinions instead of having them handed to me by Nancy Pelosi.

I really can't take you seriously as a REPORTER now. Just that one word leads me to conclude that you're just another media hack for the Obama camp.

Grassroots. The Democratic National Committee is now a "grassroots" organization. You'll have to pardon my derisive laughter at that one, because WOW. Contradiction train comin' through!