"That’s a well-oiled machine you got yourself, sir."

At the end of the day, it’s not the Republicans and probably not even the town hall crashers that is this administration’s biggest problem with regard to health care. It’s their own party.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel warned liberal groups this week to stop running ads against Democratic members of Congress.

The powerful top aide to President Obama made his feelings known at the weekly closed-door strategy session of an array of progressive organizations, according to two sources who were there.

Emanuel’s request came on the same day that Obama himself told a meeting of Democratic senators that he didn’t like seeing dollars used by liberal groups to target congressional Democrats.

Moderate Democrats who are elected and re-elected in GOP-leaning districts and states earned their spurs in part by running away from liberal orthodoxy and are unlikely to be moved by outside progressive groups, goes the White House thinking.

But wait… we thought G.O.P. lost its grip on Congress because they were too conservative, or something?

We suppose now that the Democrats control Congress and the White House, the truth can finally be told.

But dig this:

Organizing for America, the president’s political arm, is engaged in an intensive grassroots effort to rally support for healthcare reform legislation, going so far as to air ads in the states and districts of targeted Democratic members of Congress. But the spots were tame, not mentioning the names of the members, and White House officials indicated that they were being run to give their allies air cover to support the legislation.

You got that? When citizens show up to townhall meetings to protest health care reform, it’s the result of a well-orchestrated astroturfing enterprise. However, when the community organizer-in-chief rallies support for healthcare reform its “grassroots”.

Priceless