We've all seen the coverage of noisy protests at town halls and other meetings, including disruptions of events that weren't even town hall meetings at all by protesters wanting to shout down Democratic congressmen and Senators over health care.
But what about Republicans?
Well, some certainly have held town hall meetings but others apparently don't even want to bother, or else they have held them to carefully selected and hand-picked crowds, with tickets being handed out by local Republican operatives to other Republican activists.
Want to ask Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) or David Vitter (R-LA,) both of whom are running for re-election next year? Don't bother, they aren't holding meetings open to the general public. Neither are some Republican house members.
I guess their minds about how they will vote on health insurance reform are already made up, they will vote against any bill, no matter what it says. Wanna bet they won't even bother to read a summary of what's in the bills? After all, they won't have to answer any questions about it.
Criticize Democrats whose town halls have been disrupted by protesters all you want (although Washington Congressman Rick Larsen figured out how to control the protesters, by holding his town hall in a spacious outdoor stadium in which only the person at the mike could be heard then also opening the meeting with the national anthem.) But if you want to criticize Democrats then acknowlege that at least they have bothered to schedule the town halls in the first place.
1 comment:
Harry Reid, the man on whose shoulders arguably the success or failure of the bill rests, is also up for election last year and is also not scheduling any town halls.
I guess there are those in both parties who are either too cowardly to meet their constituents face to face on this issue or they are party hacks who have already decided how they will vote based on party and what their constituents think doesn't matter to them.
but don't just blame Republicans for that.
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