Posted on 08/11/2009 6:06:54 PM PDT by acton_guy
Went to the Rep Niki Tsongas (D-MA) TOwn Hall on health care. Surprised by presence of Lyndon LaRouche wackos handing out literature, holding up banners and singing (!) in front of the meeting place. Inside one of the stealth LaRouche crowd asked a question about the Nazi tactics of the Obama administration.
Do these guys show up everywhere else? I thought LaRouche was neutered a long time ago...
Rest of crowd was older liberal Massachusettts hippies calling for single-payer health care, a few people who got on the question line to drool over Tsongas and tell her how proud they were of her (to mild, scattered clapping).
Quite a few people who said they did not like the bill. Tsongas talked and talked and talked - even when it was clear she had no real answer to the question. And in many cases, this is no crime. The bill is over 1000 pages long of dense legalese - if anyone claimed that they *did* understand it all, they would be lying. Yet Tsongas would not admit that she could not answer all the questions, she just plowed ahead with platitudes until moving on to the next question.
She "misrepresented the facts" in several cases and skirted around some issues with technicalities. Yes, there is one line in the bill that says that illegals don't get benefits, but there is nothing on how this would be enforced, or how citizenship would be verified, or how it would be paid for. Everyone knows that if a bill does not have a line that says that a particular thing will be paid for by such-and-such, whatever it is just won't happen. So Tsongas plays fast and loose with the facts.
It was clear that her mind was made up a long time ago, and that these town halls are just PR for her. Sadly, no one is slated to oppose her in 2010.
sounds like you live in the wrong place... even worse than me, with doggett..... :)
I guess there is still time. I know in 1994 the GOP took a few seats.
I went to the one in Chelmsford, and thought it to be about 60% con, 40% pro. I think it went well, because no matter what the question, pro or con, the 60% of the crowd made known their thoughts vociferously. What was turnout? Any trouble getting a decent seat? Anybody not make it inside?
If that is the case, you need to run against her. It’s time to take action.
My thoughts exactly! I’m getting so exasperated with people saying, “Oh well, we’re stuck with Tsongas, or Barney Frank, or Henry Waxman, their districts will never vote against them.” I have a fantasy where the rest of us file a class action lawsuit against Barney Frank’s constituents for the irreparable damage THEY have inflicted on us for sending that horrible man to Congress over and over and over.
Nice try, newbie!
The hall was only around 1/2 full. No trouble getting in or getting a seat. Largely well-behaved, but if you were asking a conservative question you got a lot of people calling out “just ask a question” and “only two minutes”, etc. The liberal questioners got all the time they needed.
I’d say it was evenly divided - maybe a few more pro than con, which was disappointing.
LOTS of nuts. Several tall, thin women with long, stringy hair and glazed eyes asking long, complicated questions that you were never sure about. Where do these pople come from?
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