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My region encompasses three congressional districts, within a large Democratic third of a Rethug state. So two of the congresscritters are Dems, but of the weasley, chicken variety, and the third is a semi-Blue Dog, but also weasley-chicken. How the three end up with the same descriptive is how they respond to the local radio talkshow wingnuts: The two Dems run and hide from tough venues, while the Blue Dog appears weekly on the phone with the wingnuts and submits to being slapped around by them.
So the two wingnuts have been rabid in the Teabagging and during the recess hounded the critters to hold supposed "town halls." Two weeks after the initial, national town hall furor, the two Dems scheduled theirs, one in September(!1) and the other, immediately THAT DAY(!1)--by phone. O.K., fine. The Blue Dog scheduled one, but he is the tool for the 'baggers, so he won't catch that much flak, but I expect that he will "go back" to D.C. having "listened" and will use this as an excuse to vote against whatever.
So the Teabaggers did their Brooks Brothers thing and HELD THEIR OWN, but got the media to report that "The two most important invited guests----Critter 1 and Critter 2---DID NOT SHOW UP!1" And the t.v. camera panned from what looked like a small and silent crowd, or rather GROUP, to the empty dais with two empty chairs and two HUMONGOUS, professionally printed "place cards" with the names of the two critters on them.
I called the t.v. newsroom and the newspaper to complain about how the so-called reporting bought into the Teabaggers' line, how this event was THEIR event, purposely set up to embarrass the Critters, how ANYBODY can announce out of the blue that they are having a "town hall" then announce to the media that so-and-so/whoever "was too chicken to show up." The newspaper person was totally a 'bagger and tried to talk over me and said she had ASKED some of the attendees whether they were "members" of the Teabaggers (are there official "members"?), and yelled at me, "Are you saying people DON'T HAVE A RIGHT TO MEET AND SPEAK THEIR MINDS?!1"
What is galling is that Critters 1&2 really are so cowardly that they don't even DEFEND themselves.
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Now, ISSUES AND QUESTIONS FOR THE CONGRESS CRITTERS, that they shouldn't use EXCUSES:
1) Exactly HOW MANY of the disruptors were at the meetings they personally held? What percentage were the attendees ACTUALLY MEMBERS of the DISTRICT's voters, broken down by protesting-attendees and supporting-attendees?
2) Actually, who knows whether the disruptors ARE ACTUALLY MEMBERS of the District?!1
3) Media needs to ask, NOT JUST RANDOM ATTENDEES, but the ORGANIZERS of the 'baggers' events, WHO actually made the arrangements, rented (or borrowed the free library space)---Are YOU a 'bagger? Who PAID for the printed place cards and other expenses?
The bottom line is that cowardly Congress Critters should not be allowed to "go back to D.C. having LISTENED to my constituents and will vote AGAINST this or that" without providing a NUMBERED COUNT of the actual dissenting voters IN THEIR DISTRICT.
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