Best defense is a strong offense.

PROJECTION: Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual, threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harbouring hostile thoughts. - Encyclopedia Britannica
All across America citizens, alarmed by the federal government's attempts to nationalize our health care system, have been making their anger known. Despite soft-petal reports by a fawning press they are demanding real answers and accountability from elected officials. And they are in no mood for platitudes and arrogance.
Rather than acknowledge that they have stepped in it, the Democratic leadership is firing back. They pronounce the protests to be illegitimate and the protesters to be pawns of Republicans and the insurance industry. (Although if challenged they can offer no evidence of either.)
Clearly this is their strategy. As the movement grows, in their desperation they need to dissuade others from joining the fight. Ridicule, scorn and intimidation (report your 'fishy' neighbors) are their weapons of choice.
But I think it's more than that. I think many of them really believe what they're saying. From their paradigm angry and boisterous protests are manufactured products. Their community organizers rouse the rabble, bus in rental protesters (union hacks), and call it 'grass roots'. They've never been part of a legitimate, home grown, real-people protest.
Combine that with the arrogant belief that only "special interests" could possibly disagree with them, and only for nefarious motives, and you have a textbook example of projection.