Shawn Millerick of Now! Hampshire quotes an anonymous source (naturally) to claim that state Democrats are recruiting “liberal activists willing to attend so-called tea parties on Thursday and carry signs expressing racist or fringe sentiments.” Similar “crash the party” efforts are taking place around the country, Millerick says.

Talk about inoculation! From now on whenever some wingnut carries a wingnut sign at a wingnut rally, the other wingnuts can claim it’s all the work of “liberal activists.”

If true, it’s a stupid thing to do, for the simple reasons that (1) it does provide inoculation, and (2) when your opponents already are making themselves look ridiculous, it’s really bad tactics to get in the way.

However, unless the wingnuts can come up with some more solid evidence than “anonymous sources,” this story bears all the marks of a clever fabrication.

Update: I partly take the last comment back. According to Evan McMorris-Santoro at Talking Points Memo, some flaming idiot named Jason Levin has organized a Crash the Tea Party effort in Oregon to infiltrate the Party and push it further Right. Stupid, stupid, stupid.