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Where Is Your Congressman?

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  August 21st, 2010 at 09:00 AM  | 

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Heritage Action for America has a very funny new video out featuring actor Clint Howard titled “August Recess Excuses.”  Many Congressman are not holding Town Hall meetings this August.  The video shows what must be happening behind closed doors with members who are trying to avoid any embarrassing public meetings.

Some great examples of why Senators and House members are avoiding Town Hall meetings are below:

  1. Senator Claire McCaskill’s “We Don’t Trust You” Moment - August 2009;
  2. Representative Kathy Castor’s “You’ll Get Nothing and Like It” Moment – August 2009;
  3. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee “Hold That Thought While I Take a Call” Moment- August 2009;
  4. Representative Pete Stark’s “Who You Going to Kill Today” Moment – June 2010
  5. Representative Baron Hill “This Is My Meeting and You Will Follow My Rules” Moment – September 2009;
  6. Senator Arlen Specter – “God is Going to Judge You” Moment- August 2009;
  7. Constituent Question of the Year - September 2009;
  8. Representative Melissa Bean – “No Questions or You Will Meet My Strength and Conditioning Staffer” Moment – August 2010;
  9. President Obama’s “Why Does Everybody Hate You” Moment – October 2009; and,
  10. Representative Russ Carnahan – “Unfriendly Constituents Will Receive A Beat Down” Moment – August 2009.

Constituents are so angry, it is understandable why Members of Congress are avoiding meetings with constituents and avoiding the scary Town Hall moment.

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  • gekster

    More and more, they represent the government and thier own interests.
    There has to be something wrong when they are afraid to meet with the people that elected them.
    And the one moment, “No questions or you will meet my strength and conditioning staffer” reeks of a mafia attitude.

    • Scope

      and I am sure that those Congresspeople from the New England states, NY and California are representing the desires of their constituients, or a majority of them. The problem with that is that their votes affect the entire country. They are usually the same states with the highest deficits, and, who rely on the federal government to pay for their social generosity. Hopefully after November we will have only a handful of Democrat Governors out of the big picture. I’ve been very proud of the Republican Governors who are beginning to throw off the intrusion into the states rights. That is where I think the biggest pushback will come from in the future. Obama has all but made the Senators and Reps. obsolete, and they have given him permission and power to do so.

  • RedBeard

    I wonder how well this will go over with brother Ron “I Heart Obama” Howard.

  • Brian Darling

    I tried to find the top 10 Town Hall moments, but I must have missed a few good ones. Feel free to add to the list of Town Hall moments in this commentary section.

    • azaeroprof

      Ann Kirkpatrick. A first-term real piece of work.

      • RedBeard

        …eh. Never mind. Asked and answered.

        Loved the guy near the end of that video telling her not to come back. But that’s the trouble; they do.

        • Brian Darling

          That Member of Congress was literally running away from constituents. Good work.

  • lukematthews

    of just how corrupt, rude, and arrogant these people are.
    Thanks

  • hungarianfalcon

    I can’t believe how angry I’ve become with ALL these clowns. I just want to be left alone.

    They just don’t get it. I’m not advocating violence by any stretch, but there will be more incidents like the Carnahan office fire. It’s baked into the cake from a statistical probability standpoint. There are way too many people running way too hot for way too long for there not to be.

    Perhaps we can all help DC buy a clue come November and a modicum of sanity might be achieved.

    On a side note, it is interesting to see how available my congressman, Ron Paul, is compared to all these other jokers. He lives 1.5 minutes away in a house two doors down from my boss. I’ve seen him walking on the city side walks of Lake Jackson probably 5 or more times this summer alone.

    HF

  • fpete13527

    Thanks for this post Brian. I don?t think those disgraceful town hall meetings can be shown enough.

    Kathy Castor (D), FL House District 11, Tampa, has grown even more arrogant than her already arrogant nature shown in the videos. She ranks with Grayson and Stark in her true nature. She is also Pelosi’s closest confidant.

    Kathy Castor is in the top ten most disgraceful members of Congress. She is a disgrace to Tampa and she is a disgrace to this country.

    Castor, in synch. with the SEIU (union thugs in video) and with the encouragement from Charlie Crist’s full support of Obama, have pushed this unwanted progressive health deform bill full bore.

    Castor is now pushing initiatives like progressive Light Rail shamefully with a group of shameful liberal progressive Republican Commissioners in Tampa. Both Obamacare and Light Rail are initiatives that will bankrupt Tampa and Florida, create monstrosity government and give zero in return.

    Castor is also a strong stand fro raising taaxes as much as possible and she is absolutely not friendly to small business or big business in Florida.

    Here is more of the disgraceful Castor
    http://bit.ly/3rPCn
    http://bit.ly/dC4yz0
    http://bit.ly/NlG4N
    http://bit.ly/b1rj3

    Four quality Republican candidates are running in opposition to Castor and we will have results from the Primary on Tuesday as to who the Republican candidate will be. All four candidates are great conservatives.

    Bottom line is that ANY of the Republican candidates MUST be chosen over Castor….I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat doing the voting…..Castor, and the Dem plan for Florida and the U.S. is an Obamination from hell….Tampa must turn Republican yesterday!!

    Research and chose your Republican candidate for District 11. Here are the four running. Pick one and then get behind WHOEVER wins the primary on 24 August.

    Adams, Jr., Eddie (REP) Qualified
    Buntyn, Tony (REP) Qualified
    Castellano, Thomas C. (REP) Qualified
    Prendergast, Mike (REP) Qualified

    The most important thing that anyone in Tama can do is to EJECT Castor and put one of the four Republicans listed above in her place.

    • RedBeard

      Disgraceful is indeed the correct word.

      If Tampa residents want light rail, then the demand will see to that. Top-down leftists like Castor think that market forces are silly, and that they should dictate from above, seeing to it that the Great Unwashed who can’t think for themselves are guided, pushed, pulled, bullied, indexed, corralled, and beaten into submission to the Big Government Program Du Jour.

      The Bullet Train Boondoggle is yet another top-down force-fed agenda item of the left, pushed because the elitists know what’s best for us. The voters said no, so of course Oompa Loompa Crist, his BFF Obama, and Leftie Kathy are pushing the thing again.

      Whoever is the R candidate will get my support. Castor must be sent packing.

  • pragmatic

    from having to go home and face their constituents at town hall meetings. It strikes me that Princess Nancy called the House back in session partly to give the Dems cover. Now they won’t have a full recess and can get away with not scheduling as many town hall meetings, if any at all.

    My wife brought up a good point about the town hall meetings. She’s surprised the attendees aren’t coordinating to make sure that the representatives answer the uncomfortable questions posed. Someone asks a question and inevitably it doesn’t get answered or they get shined on, then the next person asks why the previous question didn’t get answered and so on.

    Thanks for the reminder of how out of touch most of them are.

  • RedBeard

    But still, she doesn’t quite fully get the concept of constitutionally limited government. Her website is full of links about all the great things she can do to “help” people.

    I recently wrote to her and thanked her for voting against the Obama agenda, but I added a final note explaining a point that most in Congress, left and right, fail to grasp in its entirety: “If Congress wants to help the American people, then Congress needs to stop ‘helping’ so much.”

  • Richard Mullins

    I expect my local Republican congresscritter will do a Town Hall. As of late my elected officials have been either a little Telegenic or go to Radio all the time.

  • cactusjack

    There is a fascinating documented phenomenon from nautical history concerning the rats on a ship (of which there are often many). Sometimes a ship at sea, sinking but trying to stay a float with pumps and counterflooding, reaches the precise point mathematically and due to physics that it cannot recover and is going to sink,it’s just a matter of a few more minutes or hours (a la Titanic). The captain or even the crew may not know it, and keep working the pumps and bailing in hopes of making port. But if there are any rats on board, they *know* when this point has been reached and start running by the hundreds. Down the rat lines, into the sea, onto the pier if possible. Away from the ship. Smart sailors on the SS Donkey are now seeing the rats a-running..

  • saintgeorgegentile

    Matheson’s been MIA for a while now. Instead it’s a telephone town hall for him. Heaven forbid he would have to answer any question that he didn’t know was coming.

    • cactusjack
      • saintgeorgegentile

        That’s how those of us down here in Dixie refer to the population center of Utah. I’m going to assume that is where Matheson resides. His district is quite large geographically ( http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=UT&district=2 ) and in a lot of instances getting from one location to another is quite difficult or as I like to say “You can’t get there from here.” However, in most cases the population centers are along the interstate or other major roads. In Matheson’s case he will attend various public events of the photo-op nature but not take any inquiries from his constituents. In you’re case I have no idea where the critter has hid out. I’m actively supporting ($$) his Republican opponent Morgan Philpot.

      • saintgeorgegentile

        Spain

  • swami7774

    …Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Around here he’s known as Jim “Fidel” McGovern, which tells you about his political preferences.

    • proudgop

      they hide or have ones in union halls bought and paid for by thugs

      OT anyone else notice a slew of Republican candidates facebook page are down today? anyone else thinking what I am?

      • cactusjack

        TX disappeared in order to break quorum on redistricting – during a legislative session, that is. They were finally found hiding (and enjoying flown in steaks and champagne as I recall) in a motel in Arkansas; then they moved to another state. The Governor debated for aawhile whether to send out state law officers to apprehend them and drag them back to Austin to reconvene quorum. He decided not because it would have been a media circus with the willing MSM celebrating their exile-martyrdom (since they were Dems). The Gov was probably right, but sometimes I think the picture of handcuffed legislators being dragged across the Red River by Texas Rangers would have been a good object lesson. And still more legal than what the dems have done to Ted Stevens, Scooter Libby, Tom DeLay, et al.

        • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

          well, in a slimey sleazy way.

        • banzaibob

          was New Mexico.

          • Richard Mullins

            and the Dem state Representatives went to Oklahoma. That left me at the time with no representation in State house and State senate. It’s not that way here(Republican State Representative and Republican State Senator) and no chance of leaving any time soon.

        • acat

          Don’t actually act on the bill in question, just .. have the session open.

          Mew

  • charliebravoNH

    According to Dem Carol Shea Porter’s House website she had town halls in the spring, none scheduled for August. Her Campaign site had her in Danville NH at a parade two days ago. I guess it’s campaign time for Carol.

  • Scope

    and it sure doesn’t apply only to the mamby pamby hiding Democrats.

    I live in VA-7th district, which is Eric Cantors district. He is so secure in his re-election that he doesn’t even have a website for his 2010 re-election campaign. I have tried my darndest to find any Townhalls that he is conducting this August break. I have found no schedule posted anywhere. Eric Cantor also had very limited Townhall type meetings in August of last year. They were mainly conducted at his Richmond site, or they were on the steps of the Capitol building in Richmond. Unlike other Republican Representative, he has drastically limited his appearances with his constituients in the whole district, particularly in the Northern part of his district. We don’t matter to him.

    I posted a comment on his site when he was in favor of the Cash for Clunkers program, and I said that if he kept voting for Big Government programs, I would have a difficult time voting for him again. My post was deleted.

  • bs61

    And he’s running for office! Since I have no clue how to imbed something here, the link:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp1XZ4qPhEo&feature=related

    • Brian Darling

      Love the constituent victory lap after he hammers the member. This video is awesome.

  • banzaibob

    Texas-20 does not have one scheduled for this month. I would like to remind him that he told everyone that the cost of healthcare would go down and funds could not and would not be used for abortions.

    I would like to ask him sweet or sour. After a quizical look I would ask what does Pelosi’s back side taste like.

  • popdaddy

    Fortunately, I live in the Western part of the socialist republic of Travis County, Texas and am represented by Lamar Smith.

    However, most of the county is represented by the extreme socialist Lloyd Doggett who I?m sure many remember by his melt down when confronted by constituents in a town hall meeting last year.

    I picked up a brochure during a doctor visit this week in Austin promoting the GOP opponent of Doggett, Dr. Donna Campbell.

    The Texas Legislature had the good sense a couple years ago to reapportion Doggett?s district to include a number of counties outside the socialist sphere of Travis county. Dr. Campbell hails from one of those counties in Columbus Texas.

    Judging from her advertising during the GOP primary in February/March, she has the strength of her supporters and gonads to rid the State of Texas of the embarrassment of the socialist Lloyd Doggett in the next Congress.
    www.drdonnacampbellforcongress.com

    • proudgop

      Whats with all Republican candidates facebook pages getting an error starting today? I usually check in to see how candidates are doing in some of key races and I notice just today

      Todd Young, Mike Fitzpatrick, Cornellious, Morgan Griffiith all getting an error and thats just few I checked?

      anyone know of any dirty Dem tricks?

  • GreyCloak

    My previous Republican Representative had town halls. I attended at least two, got some “face time” on serious issues, and respected my fellow voters/constituents who raised other serious, sometimes comical, and sometime personal issues. That Freshman Representative (still in Congress, but redistricted) listened and may have done something about a few things. He went from MD to Representative.

    My Current Republican Representative hasn’t provided an opportunity for a minute of “face-time,” but did respond to a query with a hand-written note. He gained his seat after a career in the Texas Ledge (which does require some private employment for the three-fourths of the time our Ledge is not in session).

    THIS season, my Representative has scheduled TWO “phone-in” Town Halls. In four years, not one personal appearance, but he’s a career politician.

    I’ve met with my Senators Cornyn and Hutchison (but had to go to see them). When I was a constituent of Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL), he took time to talk with me at what is now Reagan National Airport. So did Alan Dixon (Senator, D-IL) on a plane ride … he knew then that he would lose re-election, because he voted FOR Justice Thomas.

    From all of our politicians, I get the same reply: “We’re working during our ‘vacations’ … we talk to The People.” But if I hadn’t got the newsletter, I wouldn’t even know to call in, come the August Recess.

    My Rep is off for the month … he’s scheduled a few hours (on two days) to “talk with the people.”

    POLISPEAK! (to be kind, another definition of the excrement of cattle).

    For the most part, our Congress works three days a week. Many confess they don’t even read bills they vote upon, and I have yet to encounter a single Senator or Representative that says “I wrote that” (which allegedly comes with the job description).

    I’ve spoken with a few Congress-critters … generally, they bemoan the time they spend on the phone with donors. But the time they don’t spend “on the Floor” … they don’t give a rat’s patootie for The People … it’s all about campaign finances. Call a donor, get a dollar.

    John Cornyn (R-TX) took over $2 million from lawyers & law firms over the past eight years. I thought that was John Edwards’ playground.

    Congress took in over $10 billion over the past ten years from Wall Street. A good investment for an $800 billion bailout.

    In their “spare time” … the four days a week and months of vacation they don’t work, our Congress sucks up money and accepts well-written legislation from lobbyists. This is the back room. If your Congress-critter actually schedules a town hall, ask them about it.