when mr. armey resigned from the firm today, the chairman of dla pipe erp released his own statement saying, quote, we are sorry to see dick armey leave but, he said, quote, we appreciate his taking the initiative to clear up confusion surrounding freedom works. now, our reporting is not the first time that confusion has been reported about whether or not freedomworks is actually a grass roots front, an oz tense ibl grass roots front for corporate lobbying and pr. why this time has it resulted in this dramatic resignation? we honestly do not yet know. there are other signs that reporting on the increasingly extremist rhetoric that's being embraced by health care reform opponents is causing some consternation among those who are being linked to the protestors by the press. another report that we did on antihealth reform protestors last night on this show has provoked a double barreled response from the public relations firm of shirley and bannister. now, shirley and bannister currently list as client

mr. armey also represents domestic oil producers who have opposed the cap and trade energy program. >> freedom works has been involved for 25 years. we have our mission statement. we've always opposed bigger government, higher taxes. we opposed bush's t.a.r.p. bailout of wall street. his expansion of wall street. medicare part d. we have a long history. we've always opposed the same thing and about who's supporting what, pharma has spent millions supporting congress. >> look, you acknowledge of course that mr. armey does work for the four-profit insurance industry which is dead set against reform and is a key talking point of some of these demonstrators. they don't want reform of any kind. >> everybody keeps saying insurance is against the reform, but just look at press releases on line from blue cross blue shield for example. that's the government saying you have to buy their product. they're not going to be opposed to that. the gum industry would be in favor of a mandate that says everybody h

mr. armey a senior policy adviser at dla piper which happens to represent a bunch of companies in the health care industry. after we discussed freedom works and mr. armey and dla pipe other the show a couple of days ago we will lucky enough to obtain this internal piper memo. which was sent out by the lobbying firm's joint chairman to all of the firm's employees. we have contacted news outlets to set the record straight and urge correction of the inaccurate reports. for the record, we have checked and no one from the lobbying firm dla piper has contacted me or anyone else on had show by e-mail or fax or telephone or carrier pigeon or smoke signal. if anyone from dla pipe wore like to talk to us and ex-main how the firm is encouraging responsible national debate and strongly opposing disrupting the national debate about health care reform while its senior policy adviser is also running freedom works which has been putting its officials on tv to brag about blowing up town hall events, their words

reagan of 1961 and the medicare tyranny of mr. armeyf 2009 if you'd be so kind. >> there are two parts of the connective tissue. the first part is the fear mongering. the fear mongering that didn't work then to try and paint the arrival of medicare as something leading to a totalitarian state and right now we're seeing any kind of effort to bring about any form of universal health care supposedly leading to social-like medicine. and the second part of the connective tissue is really the underlying philosophy behind what reagan and armey are saying. and that's not so much a theology because it is impervious to any facts or evidence and was given perfect expression in ronald reagan's first inaugural address in 1981 when he said, government is not the solution to our problems. government is the problem. they're convinced that anything government does from medicare and social security onward is a problem. >> bring this back to health care reform and today. what is the lesson we can apply from that reagan 61 armey '09 view of medicare to the

. >> i'm sure you will do that, mr. armey. >> we'll do the best we can. >> you and dr. charm and wit, and let me tell you, the reports on your charm are overstated and the reports on your wit are understated. >> thank you, thank you very much. >> welcome back to "hardball." the last time a president tried to reform health care, the first lady led the charge, and clinton health care reform died in congress. what lessons can president obama take from the clintons efforts? jacob hacker is a yale professor and the author of a book about the clinton health care plan called "the road to nowhere." and haynes johnson wrote about the 2008 presidential race in the new book "the battle for america 2008," and he wrote a behind-the-scenes account of the clinton health care reform effort in the book "the system." jacob hacker, if there's a page in your book that you would want everyone in the white house to read this weekend, if there's a chapter, what would you highlight for them? what should they be studying? >> well, i would probably point to a chapter in my book entitled "the pla

mr. armey's firm last year. the fact that dick armey and freedom works are standing alongside regular joes like rick scott to lead the charge against health care reform could be just a coincidence. or it could be a stark reminder of who we're dealing with here. who is actively organizing the campaign against health care reform? scaring real americans with increasingly paranoid and cook kooky lies about health care and providing a script ho to express that fear.kooky lies about heald providing a script ho to express that fear. these are the pros, very well compensated pros, they do it all the time. it's a p.r. industry, it's a lobbying industry and there is a clear vested financial interest in seeing that the health care industry not reformed. not now, not ever. but the prospect of health care reform is up against a big, expensive corporate p.r. effort. as i said before, should be reported as such. ♪ (announcer) introducing new tums dual action. this tums goes to work in seconds and lasts for hours. all day or nig

dots between former house majority leader dick armey and the fake spontaneous town hall protests mr. armey to resign from his law firm. guess who is on the "meet the press" panel with dick armey on sunday. rachel is. >>> not legally a plumber. can't get a book contract. can't find anyone to run him for congress. gets laughed at a lot. joe the plumber is becoming joe the standup. worse? people are not listening. lou dobbs thinks everybody is mad at him for calling howard dean a leftist not for saying howard dean needed a stake through his heart. michelle bachman is praised for raising her son well so she lashes out at the newspaperman for writing what she called a hit job on her son. you're watching "countdown" on msnbc. ♪ (laughing through computer) good night, buddy. good morning, dad. (announcer) oreo. milk's favorite cookie. >>> rush limbaugh and karl rove on family guy. joe the plumber in a competition for d.c.'s funniest person. that's next. worst persons in the world, lou dobbs just keeps digging the hole deeper. apparently didn't get the idea when he called howard dean a blood-sucki

dots between former house majority leader dick armey and the fake spontaneous town hall protests mr. armeyo resign from his law firm. guess who is on the "meet the press" panel with dick armey on sunday? rachel is. ha, ha, ha. guys... the blue goes on the left. (announcer) getting ready for the big game? ohhhh... bring it. bounty extra soft-- the bounty with a little extra softness! it's super absorbent. and it works extra hard for your money. in this lab demo, one sheet of bounty extra soft out-scrubs two sheets of the bargain brand game on. bounty extra soft. look for new prints. >>> not legally a plumber. can't get a book contract. can't find anybody who wants to run for congress. gets laughed at a lot. joe the plumber is becoming joe the standup. worse? people are not listening. lou dobbs thinks everybody is mad at him for calling howard dean a leftist not for saying howard dean needed a stake through his heart. michelle bachman is praised for having raised her volunteering son well so naturally she lashes out at the newspaperman for writing what she called a hit job on her son. you're

mr. armeys the "financial times," in september or october, there will be a hyped-up outbreak of the swine flu, which they'll say is as bad as the bubonic plague to scare the bed wetters to vote for health care reform. i like health care reform and i haven't wet the bed in weeks. while dick armey is telling us not to worry about swine flu, there are real scientists and health officials who are trying to keep it from killing thousands and thousands and thousands of people. if you want to get a sense how hard their jobs are, you can do so from home. in the comfort of your cheetoh flicked pjs because dutch researchers have created a video game about it. oh, yes. a game about a worldwide pandemic which should not be awesome, but it is. >> the great flu. in 1918, the outbreak of an unknown influenza virus caused the loss of 40 million lives. later, this was called the spanish flu. now you are the leader of the world pandemic control and a new pandemic has happened. it's up to you to prevent the serio

i agree with what mr. armey said.fed's power, when you go back to several months where we were standing on the abyss of essential terrible not only for our economy but for the world economy, i was in a meeting with mr. bernanke and sitting there wondering, i wonder if he sleeps well at night because he and paulson at that time, secretary treasury, they were trying to sort this out. i hear people talking about pulling power away from them. inc. we teed to be cautious about taking away the ability of our government can has potential threats that are unforeseen. >> i want to, before we finish the conversation, i want to get your thoughts on health care proposals out there. congressman, you've been holding a number of rowdy town hall meetings. what's the public's response to the proposals out there? >> the last town hall meeting i had sponsored by the clinton school of public service, we had 1200 people there, very well-prepared questions on both sides. there was not one harsh word spoken. i thought it was a very good dis

armey. in addition to being the head of freedom work, mr. army is a senior policy adviser at a washington, d.c.-based lobbying firm called dla pieper. among dla pieper's clients and former clients who just might be interested in what happens with health care reform, pharmaceutical maker bristol-myers squibb, who paid dla piper through the end of 2008. medical supply rehr sleep ed, incorpora incorporated. health care provider metropolitan health networks. and the pharmaceutical firm medicines company. now, we mentioned medicines company on this program last week. while they do acknowledge paying dick armey's legal firm for lobbying, they told us specifically that the type of activities freedomworks is engaged in now with the shutting down of debate over health care, by shutting down town hall meetings over health care, this group, the medicines company, says that is not at all what they were paying for. so the question is why are dla pipers clients relevant? there seems to be evidence that when you pay dick armey's firm, you get what dick arm

freedomworks is chaired by former house majority leader dick armey, which whom i will be appearing on "meet the press" this sunday. mr. army is also a senior policy adviser at a d.c. law firm called dla piper. well, after we discussed freedom works and mr. army and dla piper on this show a couple of days ago, we were lucky enough to obtain this internal dla piper memo, which was sent out by the lobbying firm's joint chairman to all of the firm's employees. it reads, quote, recently, several media commentators -- i think that might mean me -- have suggested that dla piper may be opposing health care reform. some of the reports have gone so far as to suggest that the firm itself or on behalf of its clients may be supporting activities to disrupt the national debate on health care reform. all of these suggestions are entirely false. the firm has not on its own behalf or on the behalf of any client directly or indirectly opposed any of the pending health care reform bills and the firm strongly opposes any activities designed to disrupt the national debate about health care reform or any other public policy issues. on the

mr. forbes is, of course, the head of freedom works, former republican house leader dick armey. renter, at least i don't think so at his 90-acre or so ranch in texas. those are your angry renters. big credit for the "wall street journal" exposing that astro turfing outrage last year. this is why angryrenter.com remains relevant and instructive. this is a template. this is what corporate pr designed not to look like corporate pr looks like. all the outward appearances of grassroots outrage but fueled by corporate pr. remember that group patients first which is americans for prosperity? same deal, same template, same grassrootsy look. because of the way that organizations like freedom works and americans for prosperity are structured, they don't have to disclose who gives money to them. if you are able to figure it out, there do appear to be some patterns. according to "the washington post," freedom works received major funding from the tobacco company philip morris. lo and behold on the freedom works website you'll find, "raising the cigarette tax is bad policy." according to the