Hariri was able to "coopt" him very early on, and he was able to promote Hariri and facilitate his rise in Lebanese politics, long before people knew who Rafiq Hariri was.
Authoritarian governments in places like Burma and Russia are hostile to non-governmental activity or seek to coopt it by creating their own "civic" organizations called GONGOS or government organized non-governmental organizations.
While the first line of Wall Street's defense of its dictatorship is the more openly right wing, hard-line approach of trying to downplay and attack Occupy Wall Street thru any and all physical, political and media means, the next stage of defense will be subtler- and Democrat-led: try to divide and coopt the movement.
I do sympathize with you (and Homer) - hell, if any of the real people from the Romance of Three Kingdoms are probably rolling over in their graves after seeing what video games have done to their likenesses - but I think there's a primal human desire to coopt, adapt, and create anew.
Despite trying to coopt their support, Haddon is not a Tea Partier.