Star One Smart Blog's

BEL AIR, Md. — The reception that Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a Democrat, received here one night last week as he faced a small group of constituents was far more pleasant than his encounters during a Congressional recess last summer.

Then, he was hanged in effigy by protesters. This time, a round of applause was followed by a glass of chilled wine, a plate of crackers and crudités as he mingled with an invitation-only audience at the Point Breeze Credit Union, a vastly different scene than last year’s wide-open televised free-for-alls.

The sentiment that fueled the rage during those Congressional forums is still alive in the electorate. But the opportunities for voters to openly express their displeasure, or angrily vent as video cameras roll, have been harder to come by in this election year.

If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts.

It was no scheduling accident.

With images of overheated, finger-waving crowds still seared into their minds from the discontent of last August, many Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions. The recommendations were clear: hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects.

And to reach thousands of constituents at a time, without the worry of being snared in an angry confrontation with voters, more lawmakers are also taking part in a fast-growing trend: the telephone town meeting, where chances are remote that a testy exchange will wind up on YouTube.

For incumbents of both parties facing challenging re-election bids, few things receive more scrutiny than how, when and where they interact with voters. Many members of Congress err on the side of being visible, but not too visible, and make only a few public appearances while they are back in their districts.

An examination of public schedules for dozens of members of Congress last week showed that more House Republicans held open meetings, including several in a series of forums called America Speaking Out, which is intended to help write the party’s agenda if it wins control of Congress in November.

Just a note on Instapundit's link to Moe Lane, pointing out Gordon's Coburn problem, assuming he has any designs on going to NASA. What makes it an ever bigger problem for Gordon is how the rules have changed.

Five years ago he would have experienced grief, but ultimately Hill comity would likely win out and he'd slip by with some bruising. Coburn's tough, but he's reasonable and people can disagree.

With politics playing out in real time under an Internet-powered microscope, a huge number of Americans angry over HCR combined with Coburn's especially angry base, there just isn't room for what was once the status quo.

Who voted for the Health Care Bill? Here are the House vote results on HR 3962. No Republican voted in favor except Rep Jospeh Cao of Louisiana as profiled on LALATE last night. 30 Democrats voted against it. 24 of the 39 were of the Blue Dog Coalition.

31 of 39 were from areas that voted McCain, not Obama, in the last election. And 14 of the 39 were freshmen. And of those 14 freshmen, they are from swing districts up at stake in 2010.

With Detroit a ruin and manufacturing industries on the ropes, small business is the only possible engine of recovery from what they don't call a Depression; so the Congress is going to add an 8% tax on employing people. We already have the longest period of increasing unemployment since the Great Depression; I presume we are going for a really big record setting period of increasing unemployment.

What incentives people have to invest and create new jobs in this environment is pretty murky now; with the health bill there will be fewer incentives to invest in new jobs in the US. The incentives are now to the job black market -- hire illegal immigrants who don't have to have health insurance -- or to export the job if that can possibly be done.

Meanwhile the credit index is way down: people aren't borrowing or lending, meaning investment is down. Moving money around in circles keeps Wall Street going, but next year the Bush tax cuts expire, meaning a new round of higher taxes to go with the new taxes of the health care and carbon taxes, and the new regulations. And with a trillion dollar deficit the incentive to add surtaxes is overwhelming, thus again confiscating money from the successful -- money that otherwise would have been invested. Perhaps the government can invest for us with a new TARP?

...

In other words: Have we seen the end of the good times? Tax rates go up, but government revenues keep going down. And down. Raising tax rates doesn't seem to make the government much more money. And unemployment goes up. And the beat goes on.

A new Great Depression is not inevitable, but each time there is another transfer of resources to the government, it becomes more likely. The trick to survival is to find niches where one can thrive or at least hang on in the midst of the downward spiral. Who is succeeding in today's Detroit? It would be worth studying those survivalists...

It's also worth considering vegetable gardens. I wish I were kidding.

Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House voted to approve a $1.1 trillion, 10-year plan that Democrats said could be their defining social policy achievement.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.)
Gordon’s one of a growing list of Democratic lawmakers who are likely to have a serious challenge for the first time in a long time in 2010. Though Sen. John McCain won his district with 62 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential race, Gordon, the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, voted with Democrats on “party unity” votes 90 percent of the time in the previous Congress, according to CQ.
Lou Ann Zelenik, who just resigned her post as a county party chairwoman, is vying for the right to face Gordon next November. Gordon told POLITICO that the results in Virginia and New Jersey could have a chilling effect on Democratic politics, including the health care legislation working its way through Congress.
“It definitely slows down the Democratic momentum,” Gordon said.

Zelenik, 53, retired last year as a founding partner in L & N Construction Company. She is an Engineering graduate from Vanderbilt University. She currently serves as a member of the Rutherford County Planning Commission and as Vice-Chair of the Rutherford County Republican Party.

In announcing her campaign, Zelenik cited her business experience, raising a child as a single parent and her “mainstream conservative” philosophy as qualities she brings to her efforts to represent the 48th district. “I understand what it means to struggle through hard economic times. I understand the challenges of meeting a payroll, and most of all, I know the importance of raising a child alone while sharing our mainstream conservative values.”

Zelenik cited several issues she sees as critical areas of concern. “Our next state representative must help clean up the culture of corruption personified by speaker Jimmy Naifeh. We need to also address the lack of enforcement against illegal immigration at both the state and federal levels.”

Zelenik continued, “During these difficult economic times, I believe government must control its own house, and limit its adverse impact on the budgets of hard working Tennesseeans. My successful business experience will help me be a positive force in doing just that.”

Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care

The president's proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers.

By SARAH PALIN

How can we ensure that those who need medical care receive it while also reducing health-care costs? The answers offered by Democrats in Washington all rest on one principle: that increased government involvement can solve the problem. I fundamentally disagree.

Now look at one way Mr. Obama wants to eliminate inefficiency and waste: He's asked Congress to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of "normal political channels," should guide decisions regarding that "huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . . ."

Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans. Working through "normal political channels," they made themselves heard, and as a result Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context. But the fact remains that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration.

Another Democrat Representative will dodge his constituents, opting to conduct "Telephone Town Hall" meetings, complete with "invitation only phone calls" where one can "listen, ask questions, and leave messages"...

Sign Up For My Telephone Town Hall

On August 21, I will be holding two telephone town hall events for residents of Tennessee's Sixth Congressional District. These telephone-based public forums will allow you and other residents in the Sixth District to communicate directly with me about health care, veterans’ issues, the economy and other important issues facing Tennessee and the country. [Oh, you cheap bastiche. Running away from your votes on Cap and Trade, running to Pelosi's waiting arms; you are NOT a man. You are a wussy. -ed]

Telephone town halls do not require participants to travel – they only require a telephone. This format will allow more people across the 15 counties I represent to share their concerns and listen to the discussion. [Telephone town hall meetings protect your sorry butt from the angry responses you so richly deserve. You KNOW there are people out here who once supported you, who believed you were a centrist, but now know you are simply a Party Man...enslaved to a Party that's far, far left of what you are supposed to represent. -ed.]

Participation is toll free and easy. Please fill out the form below to register for the telephone town hall in which you would like to participate.

On August 21, shortly before the start of the town hall you for which you signed up, you will receive an invitation phone call, which will provide you with simple instructions about how to listen, ask questions, and leave messages. [You can't stand to see the faces of the people you represent, can you, Bart? Look people in the eyes, you can't do that anymore, can you? You only want to hear what you want to hear; your mind is made up, you are in the pocket of this far-left Administration. -ed.]

Please do not forget to include your area code when providing your phone number. Also, if possible, I encourage you not to use a cell phone number because the invitation phone calls often don't work as well with cell phones as they do with landline telephones.

All fields with a blue asterisk (*) are required.

Democrat CongressMasters are now ducking their own constituents by holding stealth care meetings. Pickle-puss Harry Reid refuses to hold any townhall meeting. He’ll be lecturing to a few handpicked syphocants by phone.
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Yes, Jesse, when John Dingell deliberately lies to his own constituents at a townhall, they should not get upset. No, they should recognize their CongressMaster is only looking out for them. They should have fallen to their knees with gladful sounds and thanked the good Master for knowing what’s best for them and how they should order their lives, right down to the food they eat and the lightbulbs they use. Those hoi polloi should know their place. Just because Congress is exempting itself (and unions like the SEIU who beat up Ken Gladney - a person of no interest to Leftists seeing he’s an inauthentic black man), they have no right to be resentful of supporting CongressMasters of having first class healthcare at hoi polloi’s expense. They should be happy with being dumped into a system that will be more expensive, less responsive and rationed for the very young and the very old ala Canada and Britain. I mean, Medicare and Medicaid are broken so rather than fix those programs lets just expand them to the whole country! What could go wrong?