In 1953, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote of the
Soviet suppression of a spring uprising in Berlin,  Would it not
be easier, In that case for the government, To dissolve the
people And elect another?  Why quote a communist bootlicker and
Stalin hagiographer best known for socialist realism, whatever
that means? Because in that single moment of apparent weakness,
he seems to have captured how government apparatchiks must think
when caught in the headlights of popular discontent.  And yes,
of course, the image of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
does come to mind.  The happy spokesman (he always inexplicably
laughs when journalists begin to taunt him) said this when asked
about the prairie fires engulfing Town Hall meetings this month:
“I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the
Astroturf nature of so-called grass-roots lobbying.”  Actually,
the protests are taking place in opposition to the Obama
Administration’s proposed takeover of health care. What they
are, clearly, i