Little Bob & Pat Murphy Stacking the Deck?

[kunsunoke]

Casey camp denies Q&A was rigged at East Stroudsburg University

Also:

"All my meetings are public," Murphy said, after a Tuesday health care town hall meeting at Grundy Towers, a Bristol retirement community.

But health care opponents contend the self-described Blue Dog Democrat is hiding from them.

Dr. Brian Priest, a Doylestown heart surgeon, criticized Murphy's availability at a town hall meeting Monday organized by the Pennridge and Upper Bucks chambers of commerce.

"This is like finding Elvis Presley," he said.

LOL Blue Dogs

[wa3ra]

And you find this surprising why?

[pyld]

I remain curious about this point: what responsibility do congresscritters have to throw town meetings?

One of the things that disgusts me (about people on both sides of the health care issue) is that they complain about the teleconferenced town meetings, complain when questions are drawn at random, and probably don't actually call/fax/write/e-mail their congresscritter about anything. It's essentially all about the television. So when they bitch about being able to voice their opinion, it's essentially crocodile tears.

There is a very simple solution to the problem: vote them out.

[adymond]

I remain curious about this point: what responsibility do congresscritters have to throw town meetings?

One of the things that disgusts me (about people on both sides of the health care issue) is that they complain about the teleconferenced town meetings, complain when questions are drawn at random, and probably don't actually call/fax/write/e-mail their congresscritter about anything. It's essentially all about the television. So when they bitch about being able to voice their opinion, it's essentially crocodile tears.

There is a very simple solution to the problem: vote them out.

I will speak for myself, but I have sent MANY e-mails, faxes, letters, and made countless phone calls to both Joe Sestak and Bob Casey only to get a polite "fuck you" letter in the mail stating why they support issues they are voting in support of. They all have seemed like generated response letters as they covered several different issues some of which I have not contacted them about.

I don't think they have any responsibility to hold town hall meetings, but they do have a responsibility to listen to their constituients. If they are holding a town hall then damn it they should sit their asses down and listen until their constituients have had their say. Of course they should respond, but they should be the ones listening not making a speech and then allowing for a few questions then running.

[pyld]

I will speak for myself, but I have sent MANY e-mails, faxes, letters, and made countless phone calls to both Joe Sestak and Bob Casey only to get a polite "fuck you" letter in the mail stating why they support issues they are voting in support of. They all have seemed like generated response letters as they covered several different issues some of which I have not contacted them about.

I agree. I regularly end up actually calling their office to get their opinion on an issue because the generic form letter does not hack it.

But the key word here is regularly.

I don't think they have any responsibility to hold town hall meetings, but they do have a responsibility to listen to their constituients.

They do have a responsibility to listen to their constituents, but have free choice as to how and when they do (or do not do) it. As constituents, our recourse (our only recourse) is at election time.

If they are holding a town hall then damn it they should sit their asses down and listen until their constituients have had their say. Of course they should respond, but they should be the ones listening not making a speech and then allowing for a few questions then running.

I agree and disagree in part.

At one level, I don't blame them for writing off the nutjobs who show up spouting about Nazi eugenics, asking about Obama's birth certificate, or generally yelling and screaming. They can safely assume that they don't (And won't) ever have those votes, and thus write them off. They may also infer that it's a play to the TV cameras, which we know only pleases politicians when it's the politician who is playing to the cameras. Hell, if I was a congresscritter and an anti showed up at a town hall meeting screaming about me allowing guns killing innocents or the like, I'd ignore them.

On the other hand, they do spend too much time talking, and not enough listening. But (and this is key) they only care about listening long enough to figure out how to vote to ensure that %51 of those that vote in the next election vote for them.

And that's the meat of the issue: some (including yourself) have asserted that congresscritters should listen to their constituents. I also believe they should, but that's not the reality of the situation. They only want to be re-elected (for the most part) and they are under no obligation to do anything until election time rolls around. I know from experience that they will ignore individuals whose vote they've figured to have lost.

In my mind, this energy spend chasing these bozos around and complaining about how they don't have meetings would be better spent trying now to think about how to unseat them in a few years. Everything else is just seeking TV airtime (or newsprint space, etc).

Money and votes. Nothing else matters.

[adymond]

Money and votes. Nothing else matters.

I think we are actually more in agreement on this than you might think. That point right there is exactly what is wrong with our government at this point IMO.

[pyld]

I think we are actually more in agreement on this than you might think. That point right there is exactly what is wrong with our government at this point IMO.

We get the government that we collectively elect. It's my view that chasing a congresscritter around to yell at him/her at a town hall is counterproductive. Talking to your neighbors/friends/relatives in a collected and persuasive manner about the issues and trying to get them to vote the way one wants is a fare more useful tactic. Financial support of "correct thinking" candidates is also useful. I find respectfully but firmly communicating my wishes on how they should vote to be a distant third, and screaming at a town hall to be an epic fail.

I'm also in a unique spot: I find that there are one, maybe two federal elected officials (or recent candidates) that are worthy of support. We need more Ron Pauls, and less true "democrats" and "republicans." Because of this, I also believe that primaries are important and oft-overlooked--because if both the "D" and "R" choices suck, there is nowhere to turn (this is obviously a tangent.....)