Charlie Bass Does the Two-Step with Fringer Joe Wilson

I was at one of those town halls. (4.00 / 1)

The one in Marlborough was not nasty.

The voters who spoke overwhelmingly opposed the Bush-Bass plan to gut Social Security, and some groaned when Bass used Luntz-approved language such as "death tax." But nobody shouted "liar"; nobody interfered with his presentation.

It perhaps should have been more contentious. Bass simply did not understand the Social Security program itself. He confused the Supplemental Security Income program with the central "Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Income" program. If a doctor had demonstrated such ignorance of a topic before getting out his scalpel, the wise patient would hobble away as quickly as possible.

There is the separate issue that Charlie was not the President and the voters in the hall were not on the government payroll. The rules of decorum are different. But we don't even need to go there. The crowd was not nasty. This is part of the current Republican theme that Carol Shea Porter respectfully asking questions of her Representative is just like the tea-baggers who shout down other voters.

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by: elwood @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 07:55:09 AM CDT

Town Halls used to be much smaller events (4.00 / 1)

I remember going to a Town Hall with Bass's predecessor, Dick Swett, back when I lived in CD-2.  It was probably in 1992 or 1993, before the catastrophic 1994 midterm elections, but I am not sure about that.  There were about 10 constituents, one Congressperson and one aide, and we met in the back room of the Lyme town library. No press, no banner, no fuss: One guy did rant about "the Savings & Loan pirates," but otherwise it was just a normal (and informal) discussion.  (This was back around the time when S&L's were collapsing.)  

I do remember that Rep. Swett did go on for a little bit about how polarized and unforgiving the political culture in DC had become, and about how he and others from both sides of the aisle were trying to change that.  Little did we know how much worse the political climate would become.

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 07:58:41 AM CDT

Dick Swett - Health Care Reform (0.00 / 0)

Paul and Carol are the second and third Members of Congress from New Hampshire to co-sponsor comprehensive health care reform.  Dick was the first.  And he did it in a Republican year, and at a time when he was the only major Democratic officeholder in the state.

I was a 20-year-old campaign staffer in the Upper Valley that year (Tim, I remember dropping off your lawn sign!), and the attacks Dick received for his support of President Clinton's Health Security Plan were fierce.  But he held firm -- just as he did in his support for an assault weapons ban.  Democrats in more secure seats across the country took their names off the President's plan when the going got tough, but not Dick.

I saw Dick on Wednesday night, the eve of the President's speech -- he was in the DC area for business related to his green energy start-up.  After hearing the President, he was fired up and ready to go. . . .

Kudos to Jeanne, Paul, and Carol for their unrelenting support for health care reform.  And special thanks to the guy who took the slings and arrows at a time when change was a lot less popular in New Hampshire.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 12:22:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I was at Charlie's Milford Town Hall (4.00 / 2)

Back in 2005, I was at Charlie's Milford Town Hall on Social Security reform.

I wouldn't describe it as "nasty", everyone was polite. But about 95% of the people in attendance were against Bush's plan to privatize Social Security and they let him know. Charlie spouted the usual right-wing talking points about the joys of privatizing Social Security, but people weren't buying it.

To compare those town halls to the current HCR townhalls is ridiculous.

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by: Scoonie @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 08:46:21 AM CDT

I also attended the Milford town meeting when ... (4.00 / 2)

CB tried to sell Social Security reform.

The room was packed, and Charlie, slowly and deliberately and politely, got his clock cleaned on the topic. I'm often amazed and amused at how often the retirees who show up at town hall meetings are former analysts, educators, college professors, economists and others who do REALLY understand the system and how well it's working and can articulate that in those settings. Emotions were high in that room, but nobody was out of control. If it was "nasty" for Charlie, it was because he was in a very hot seat.

I clearly remember him saying: 'Once you take Defense and Homeland Security [budgets] off the table, there isn't anywhere else to make the big cuts that are needed.' And all I could think was, why take Defense off the table?

And he did regularly use the right-wing approved language, just as he consistently takes about "socialized medicine" now.

JillSH

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by: JillSH @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 13:00:50 PM CDT

That's because the paradigm they adhere to is that the (0.00 / 0)

power to use force is the same as an instruction to use it.  They prefer to equate to govern with the brake, rather than the gas pedal and the engine.

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by: hannah @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 18:13:41 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

BassMaster Classic (4.00 / 1)

So Joe the Heckler being a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a white supremacist group that openly advocated secession, does not qualify him as a fringe, crazy person? Hey, with tenthers Pawlenty and Perry, and death panelist Sarah "The Quitter from Wasilla" Palin being the mainstream of the GOP he has a point.

Jesse Helms would be proud.

"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." -- Molly Ivins  

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by: The Grand Panjandrum @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 16:36:04 PM CDT