Apparently, the grass is actually more plasticine on the other side of the fence. Last week, liberal and conservative movement types took to calling the "grassroots" activists on the other side of the health-care debate "Astroturf" - real as the Brady family's lawn.
Whoever's the Astroturf and whoever's the sweet green grass in your view, it's clear that the intermittent pro-and-con health-care demonstrations seen around the state didn't crop up without a little fertilizer from national and statewide groups.
Meanwhile, it seems, if you get your politics from blogs, cable, YouTube or Twitter, it can all become just a high-tech game of telephone. The result: Partisans on both sides of the political divide think something's happening when it's not.
So, right-wing groups like the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition (which is linked to Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by an oil-and-gas tycoon sometimes called the richest man in New York) urged folks who oppose the health-care reform bill now percolating in the Senate to attend the ordinary office hours held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's staffers in towns including Grafton.
Then other conservative blogs reported that the Grafton event would be a "town hall meeting" with Shaheen herself. President Obama's campaign wing, Organizing for America, got on board, urging followers to turn out at a meeting in Grafton and "make sure that the most powerful voices in this debate are those calling for real reform."
The only problem: Shaheen was in Washington on Thursday, voting to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and to plunk down $2 billion more for "cash for clunkers." Meanwhile, in Grafton, according to videos and folks who were there, a few dozen people brought their chants and signs (including a lot of antis and few pros) and were set for some town hall hootenanny when they found out that Shaheen's staffers were there only to meet one-on-one with citizens who had issues with the federal government, like passport problems or Social Security snafus.
To Ryan Williams, spokesman for the GOP, the anti-health-care-bill protesters are the organic ones, while the pro-health-care-bill folks were obviously all ginned up by the Obama group.
"The Democrats' 'grassroots' health care effort is about as organic as a box of Hostess cup-cakes," Williams said. "They're supported by millions of dollars in national Democrat campaign contributions, big unions and Obama's national propaganda machine."
Over on the liberal website Blue Hampshire, the vernacular for the folks who've been turning out to yell down Democratic congressmen and women at town-hall meetings nationally is "Astro-Turf teabagger."
After the Thursday mix-up, Shaheen chastised the protesters, saying in a statement that they "should be ashamed of themselves" and their actions, including taping private citizens who didn't want to be taped and generally "impeding the ability of New Hampshire citizens to get the help they need," which, she said, "is a line that shouldn't be crossed."
To calm the whole thing, Grafton Police Chief Merle Kenyon reports that there was no major ruckus in Grafton, no arrests, no warnings, not much to report.
"It wasn't terribly dramatic," Kenyon said. "We had quite a few people" (but not, he notes, as many as come to town meeting in Grafton). Libertarian videographer Dave Ridley, he said, was "in everybody's face." And "one guy did a couple of stump speeches, but it's all public property."
He said he was disappointed with Shaheen's statement on that matter. "She makes it sound like people were out of control, doesn't she?" Kenyon said. "There was nothing out of hand."
"I thank God that we have the opportunity to be able to express our opinions in public," Kenyon said. "That's strictly a personal view."
Stay tuned for more, as Obama himself takes the case for health-care reform to Portsmouth High School on Tuesday.
Meanwhile . . .
To get a ticket to the Obama event, you had to submit your name, phone number and zip code to a White House website by yesterday. Those selected to get tickets will get a phone call telling them so. Curiously, the White House made no representation on how tickets will be distributed - randomly, first-come-first-served or through a screening process.
In the hole?
For a couple of years now, state Democrats have had a huge cash and staff advantage in New Hampshire, with a payroll and a bankroll to dwarf the GOP. The Republican nadir may have been a few years back when the GOP chairman had to spot his party a loan.
Times appear to have changed. Mid-year FEC filings showed the state Republican Party leading the Democrats in the cash race for the first time in a long while.
The Republican press release was subtitled: "Republican Party In The Black; Democrat Party In The Hole." The release highlighted that the Republicans showed nearly $175,000 in the bank as of the end of June and no debt, while Democrats had about $23,000 in the bank and nearly $30,000 debt.
The Democratic response was, essentially, de nada.
"Unlike New Hampshire Republicans, who are still in debt to the New Hampshire Democratic Party for tens of thousands dollars" as a result of the phone jamming settlement, "the Democratic Party continues to raise an unprecedented amount of money as the majority party," said spokeswoman Victoria Bonney.
"Where's all the money going on the Democrats' side? Presumably into Ray Buckley's pocket," said Williams, taking a poke at the fact that Buckley, the party chairman, draws a salary from Democratic accounts while GOP chief John H. Sununu volunteers.
Time will tell whether this is a blip or a sign of things to come.
Legislative meetings
The Legislature's veto session - which, if things don't go the state's way, may well wind up being the day when the Legislature takes on replacing the JUA money - is set for Oct. 28.
Also, of interest: A subcommittee of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is tackling "sexting" in a "work session" Aug 18.
No cameras
Aspiring YouTubers, you'll have to catch former attorney general and likely Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte outside Wolfeboro.
Winnipesaukee GOP Leader Chris Ahlgren said that while reporters and photographers are welcome to their meeting with Ayotte on Tuesday night, he wants to keep out video cameras.
"We're trying to keep the social to be a social and not a media frenzy event," he said. This isn't coming from Ayotte he said - "this is purely from our end." What he hopes, he said, is that Winni GOP-ers can speak and ask questions without being "intimidated by cameras rolling."
New counsel?
Rumor has it that Senate legal counsel Jeff Meyers may be the pick to replace Mike Delaney as Lynch's legal counsel. Stay tuned.
Fernald's out
Democrat Mark Fernald announced last week that he was ending his campaign for Congress, just two months after he'd started it. He said that he realized the timing was wrong for his family; he has a son starting college and a daughter who is in high school.
"While my interest in public policy and my commitment to public service remain strong, I have the rest of my life to consider a run for public office," Fernald wrote to supporters. "Right now, I have two years left to be a dad before our nest is empty."
Happy hour
This week will be my last at the Monitor and writing Capital Beat. I am shipping off to graduate school at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts, where I plan to study Arabic, economics and more.
If you're sad - or glad! - to see me go, or if you just like politics and beer, you're cordially invited to a bipartisan happy hour at the Barley House on Thursday night at 6. You can meet the indomitable Shira Schoenberg, who will be taking over the Capital Beat.
This is a BYOB (Buy Your Own Beer) event. All parties welcome. I do hope there will be bipartisan thumb-wrestling.