Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Townhall meetings? Not for Beloit!

Letter to the Beloit Daily News editor:

I see in today's Beloit Daily News that our Congressional representative, Tammy Baldwin, is going to use "high tech" to conduct "townhall meetings" on the proposed federal health care takeover bill..

Dan Manzullo for Northern Illinois, and Paul Ryan from Janesville are also holding meetings - where they stand up in front of interested people and field questions about the proposed health care bill. They get a true feeling for the desires and fears of their constituents.

Ms. Baldwin, on the other hand, has elected to hide behind the shield of the Internet. She invites people to "register" for her talks, and has total control over who actually can speak, or be heard by other participants. She has the comfort of knowing she won't have to come face-to-face with any possibly irritating or passionate constituent, and she won't have to put up with any questions she does not want to field.

People without Internet access, or those who missed the times published, or those who cannot get on-line at the prescribed times will be ignored.

What exactly is Tammy afraid of? Perhaps she thinks if she shows up in person, she won't be able to ignore the true feelings of the people she supposedly represents. Perhaps she's just scared she won't be able to put lipstick on this pig of a bill.

I also note that our senators Kohl and Feingold are conspicuously absent from the "townhall meeting" circuit, so far. Do these people truly represent us and our best interests?

Chuck Kuecker

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