Boehner's Office Cheers On Disruption Of House Dems' Town Hall Events
In the latest development of Democratic House members' town hall meetings being disrupted by the Tea Party crowd, House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) office is now applauding this turn of events.
"Back home for the August recess, rank-and-file Democratic Members of the House are facing a backlash from their constituents, who are already fed up with Washington's job-killing agenda and don't support Democrats' government takeover of health care," says a press release posted on Boehner's official blog.
The release then recounts the nasty reception that Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) has gotten, and declares that "Rep. Doggett is not alone."
The posting concludes: "Unless Democratic leaders agree to work with Republicans on a bipartisan plan that achieves real reform that Americans are seeking, it will be a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Yeah check zip codes! These events should be for constituents only.
August 3, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, if the FBI wants to have a 'little chat' with Boehner about the insanity of aiding and abetting disruptive conduct at public meetings, I'd be cheering on the FBI.
Boehner is completely out of bounds to advocate any sort of disruptive conduct. That's a page right out of Hitler's playbook.
It's very hot where I am; patience is already short because of terrible heat, and the last thing we need are thugs showing up to inflame emotions that are already fraying.
Boehner and the GOP are totally out of bounds.
August 3, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right out of Hitler's playbook? Don't you mean Bush's playbook?
I seem to remember a group of thugs in Florida in 2000 trying to interrupt the recount. Many of them were Tom DeLay staffers.
On second thought. It is the same playbook, isn't it?
August 3, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
right cuz its not like zip codes can be looked up online or anything
August 3, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does this remind anybody of the brownshirts of another time?
August 3, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was my first thought when I heard of this campaign. These thugs and their corporate-lacky sponsors care not one whit for real democracy, just schoolyard bully tactics to impose their special brand of ignorance and hate on the masses.
August 3, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely.
August 3, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only question is
are the Democrats going to take this shit or are they going to turn it back on the Republicans and make them eat it?
August 3, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
My money is with Democrats taking this shit. It's what they do.
August 3, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Without a doubt.
August 3, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listen to you guys. I suggest you go to your congressman or woman's meeting and stand up for reform. We get the government we deserve, or you let ill informed goons take away from you. You have no excuse.
August 3, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers Mark! You are exactly right! (As usual.)
August 3, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Aunt Sam. I get tired of the posers who never get off their butts and do anything but complain. It's a participatory democracy folks. You snooze, we all lose.
August 3, 2009 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
YES! We obviously have the same 'song'book!
Hope you blog about this very issue! Please!
How's your local politics goin? Ours are worse than ever!
August 3, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok Aunt Sam yo talked me into it. look for my blog. Remember Judy Biggert's straw poll? I'm gonna write something about it right now.
August 3, 2009 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem with trying to turn it back on the Republicans is that they don't have the guts to hold town hall forums. They have tightly controlled conference call meetings with a delay and a dump button so that negative comments can't be heard.
In short, the Republicans are cowards. I would suggest going to the Dems' town hall meetings with a video camera and get right up in the face of the thugs while they're spouting off. Afterwards, follow them to their cars with the video camera running and see if they start to think twice about causing trouble anywhere else. And if you do that, please post the video on Youtube. It could be highly amusing.
August 3, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, my Rep who is a Republican is holding two this coming Saturday and I would go to one if I weren't working and I would love to ask him what he thinks of the "tea-bagging disruption" tactic.
While I share in your general frustration, I cannot see the good in making such broad and factually untrue assertions.
August 3, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I'm sorry. I should have qualified that statement for you.
In districts that aren't thoroughly red, where there's a strong possibility that the GOP rep is going to hear some negative feedback, they tend to avoid open town hall forums. Is that better? I hope I didn't upset you.
You know, considering where the Republican party has gone, considering its total commitment to lying, lying, more lying, and nothing but lying in its desperate attempt to inflict damage on the opposition, I don't think I have the luxury of taking the time to check and double-check the absolute factual purity of my statements.
I live in a state that has three Republican members of Congress. And those are three Republican members of Congress who don't hold town hall meetings in anything but a tightly controlled environment--Bush/Cheney style. Instead of open town hall meetings, they hold events at companies where the general public can't get in and the company's employees aren't about to risk their jobs by asking the rep a meaningful and embarrassing question. And what I said about the conference call meetings is factually true about two of those GOP congressmen.
These are cutthroat motherfuckers we're dealing with now. If you want to pussyfoot around them and fret over whether somebody might have painted them with too broad a brush, be my guest. But, I don't give a shit. I'm fed up with these fuckers.
I used to worry about making generalized statements about the GOP and would try to mention that there are some Republicans who don't necessarily fit the description. I don't anymore. If, after all that we've seen and heard from the Republican party, just since January, somebody still wants to identify with them, they deserve to be lumped in with all the rest and their nasty traits. Think about it. The majority of them are birthers. What kind of an idiot still wants to belong to that party?
August 3, 2009 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is another story for the New York Times to ignore.
August 3, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Times won't ignore this for too long. They've already been suckered into running a story about "angry constituents" (see TPM homepage). And, MSNBC's lead-in to a story about the rants portrayed them as the expressions of angry constituents. (Although they clarified some -- still not enough -- in the subsequent discussion.)
The MSM tends to take things at face value, and not do too much real digging on a story. So, they will likely cover this as "angry constituents" who "don't like the Democrats' healthcare plan."
These boisterous town halls will become a major story by the end of this week, since we'll probably see more of these disruptions. The question is how they will be covered: Opposition to Democratic proposals or Republican/industry [anti-Obama] plants to derail Democratic proposals?
I'm glad to see TPM taking the lead on this story. Hopefully, they will lay the foundation for latter interpretation.
[By the way, we'll probably see something like this at Obama's next event, which will break the story wide open. Malkin hinted as much yesterday, when she talked about the protesting of prominent individuals (Hillary Clinton) "helped" reframe the debate in the 90's.]
August 3, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean the liberal New York Times.
August 4, 2009 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Um, TPM? Before we all jump on the "DEMOCRATS ARE GETTING HARASSED" bandwagon, wouldn't it be really useful to provide some context to these claims?
For example, if Doggett was the only one out of 45 town hall events held over the weekend to get harassed, shouldn't that be noted?
To do otherwise is only to ennable Boehner and the Republicans by focusing attention on what could be a very isolated event.
For example, Dodd and Sibelius held an event in Hartford today, and there were no reports of dispruptions. At least as of yet.
But there's no mention of this relatively peaceful proceeding anywhere at TPM. Just a repetition of rightwing talking points. Which is important and useful, but perhaps may be skewing the reporting in the same direction Republicans would prefer.
August 3, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good to hear that Dodd had a good session with citizens. But no one should have to suffer through a bunch of thugs harassing their elected officials.
It just makes people more disgusted with the political process, and turns the US into one more banana republic where thugs rule.
August 3, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, they're definitely not isolated. In fact, you can go check out the tea party websites where they're coordinating these attacks. And, we just recently had a health care forum held by one of our Democratic reps in Minnesota shut down because of this kind of an attack. It's a coordinated effort and it's widespread.
Probably the most effective thing the Dems can do is to jack up the animosity towards the health insurance companies. They're the one who are funding this shit.
August 3, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's organization, and then there's actual events. What we're hearing about are the ones where something occurred, not the ones where nothing occurred.
It's important that Dems stay on top of this--absolutely. And it's important to point out media bias as well. But it's also important to provide some context to the situation--that's my criticism of TPM, not of Democrats.
They should have expected this, and they should also find a way to hold events for constituents, and not rabble rousers bused in.
August 3, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
The effort by the teabaggers is to have these outbursts take place at every Democratic health care reform forum across the country. This is not something that should have been expected before it happened. Members of Congress have been doing town halls like these on a variety of topics for ages. When has there ever been a nationwide effort to bust them up?
You've got two choices: a) open to the public, b) controlled access. It's a lose-lose situation. With "a" you get your meeting shut down by thugs. With "b" you get accused of acting like Bush.
I get the feeling that some of the commenters here really don't know what's happening at these meetings. This isn't just some mild heckling. This is about making it impossible for the speaker to be heard. That kind of makes the whole meeting pointless. Wouldn't you say?
August 4, 2009 12:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
And as I said, there's planning and then there're actual events. I'm not trying to minimize the damage done by the actual instances of harassment and abuse. I'm asking for a little journalistic clarity from TPM. They've highlighted two incidents that support the meme of teabaggers completely derailing meetings. Fine. But if 100 other meetings have been held in which no such thing took place, shouldn't that also be conveyed?
August 4, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just got home from work, turned on msnbc, and saw Sibelius and Specter being shouted at. It is going to happen all this month. I have a repub for a congressman, so there will probably be no town hall at all here, but if you can go to a dem townhall..do it! And take video of the whack jobs!! It will be great!!
August 3, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see at Kos' Weekly Poll that Boehner remains about as popular as herpes. That being the case, there probably aren't that many people interested in what he has to say. If that's true, then saying something goofy is probably his best chance of making headlines.
Heck of a job, Boehner!
August 3, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's most frustrating about this is that the MSM isn't going to do a story on how the insurance industry is astroturfing and coordinating these phoney "grassroots" campaigns. Instead, at best, they're report it as a "some people say" or "angry leftists hippies claim" angle.
August 3, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
So the Republican's strategy to stop President Obama is now to throw temper tantrums like spoiled little babies? What a bunch of pathetic losers!
August 3, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, just like always. Our way or no way. Now, people can not even come and listen, ask questions and discuss issues with their representatives, becasue the lunatic fringe has decided no one should get heard but them. this really is the last straw. America, get out of your doldrums and fight back! If you allow yourself to be shouted down, you have been silenced. Any last shred of respect I had for the GOP is gone. Now they take our freedom of speech and to meet peacefully from us also. Is there no low they won't sink to? No, I suppose not.
August 3, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats need to take steps against this astroturf anarchy. First, there should be a police presence there to keep the meeting civil. Also if it continues to get out of hand, they should consider requiring voter registration cards with ID to make certain they aren't being harrassed by people who were bussed in by the health care industry. And the Democrats should organize with their grassroots organizations to counteract the unruly teabaggers. Democrats need to get organized and fight back. You have to stand up to bullies.
August 3, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously, this is very disturbing. I feel frightened that there is going to be a lot of violence, and that the Republicans will welcome that - apparently, they will do anything to get back in power. Have they lost their minds completely? Can they not see how dangerous this is? Calling the President a socialist, encouraging and enabling the birthers, now this? This goes way beyond partisan politics, very close to
August 3, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, it'll probably be similar to the tenor of some of McPalin rallies last Fall.
Similar over-the-top name calling has gone on in the good ol' US of A for many moons. Inciting violence is one thing but the 'socialist' name calling and birther crap is pretty tame stuff actually, IMO.
August 3, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
It could backfire on the Republicans. If Dems are holding the town meetings, they'd better be sure they have plenty of video running at every event.
August 3, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only answer a speaker at one of those meetings needs to say to the rabble is "if McCain had won, and HE was having town hall meetings on some issue, and liberals were showing up in droves to monkeywrench the event. . . how would you feel about that? Look in the mirror, you are as selfish and foolish as THAT. This is NOT how democracy works. Show your disapproval on election day at the polls, not by stopping all reasonable debate."
Of course that won't make a difference anyway-- these are people who think torture is OK, if WE do it, but pure evil if THEY do it.
This is a real brown-shirt tactic for sure, and it's coming from people who compare Obama to Hitler. The irony never stops.
August 3, 2009 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The thing I am convinced of is this started with the film that went viral of the psycho who interrupted her local guy's speech with her demented rant about Obama's birth certificate. The right realized this is the way to do it...no intelligent or thoughtful speech or discourse..just crazies yelling and screaming. And like someone posted above, I immediately thought of the so called Brooks Brothers riot that shut down the Florida recount. Courtesy of Karl Rove. And the even dimmer and more malleable dopes at home will watch the film on Fox and think "wow there is something to this."
August 3, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, this is definitely not random and is organized by lobbyist/special interests against real healthcare reform. Here's one memo courtesy of MYDD:
"A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress:
Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.
Be Disruptive Early And Often: You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early.
Try To Rattle Him, Not Have An Intelligent Debate: The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."
There's a forum here on Thursday, we'll see what happens.
August 3, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
And when violence occurs at these events, as it most assuredly will considering the raw meat that is being throw out to the lowest common denominator, will Bohener have a response ready to blame the left? Check his desk drawer. I agree that the events should be covered by video. These people are out of control and have lost all concept of a democracy.
August 3, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, the Republicans may find the crazies are easier to turn on than to turn off.
August 3, 2009 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can rest assured the media will push the disruption the question is which side will they come down on - maybe we need to play the same game - bring people with legitimate health care, job, etc. issues to their town hall meeting and ask Republicans why they are against them, why are they against the American people... Like to hear the tea brains shout down a family with no job, no health care, and a kid with cancer....
August 3, 2009 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats need a strategy for getting their talking points out in advance to local media. Our local news is far more objective than the national media especially when it comes to understanding the local players. If outsiders are disrupting events, it's the local media that's going to find that of interest and the networks tend to pick up their reports.
August 3, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember when you were in school trying to learn how to solve those tricky math problems, or trying to review for the big test, and there was always one or two idiots who continually disrupted the learning by shooting spit wads at other kids...
The health insurance industry, with the full support of the GOP, has decided that the best way to prevent the public from learning what actually is and is not in the various reform proposals is to send groups of people to the town hall meetings and have them act like the "spit wad patrol".
Remember the 4 D's of the Republican strategy during the Obama years: Delay, Distract, Distort, Deceive.
August 3, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brownshirts, nothing less.
August 3, 2009 9:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
This reminds me of the Terri Schiavo case. The GOP did the same thing, bringing in Radall Terry and his supporters.Remember how that turned out? Guess what? Expect the same here. It's not happeing this time.
Obama will get a reformed healthcare plan. I'll bet my life on it.
August 3, 2009 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think the 'Brownshirt' analogy works at this point; they would normally beat people up and break windows, then go have a few beers and sing those catchy songs; save it for later when it will be more appropriate and effective. Staying with the historical reference, I don't see the president acting particularly Churchillian. Show some spunk, Winny.
August 4, 2009 7:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd definitely agree. All they're doing is acting like idiots. No violence or vandalism yet.
Resorting to this type of exaggerated terminology makes us no different from those that simultaneously, with no cause whatsoever, call Obama a Nazi or communist.
August 4, 2009 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sigh... since the posters here all say that the Repub congressmen will not be holding town hall meetings, there is no way to organize a tete a tete equivalent to subject the Boehners to.
That leaves, how to deal with the teabaggers when they turn up at your Rep's meeting. Us liberals have a near-fatal devotion to civility - we always believe in letting the other guy have his say. Trouble is, our self-selected opponents do not believe this, and their plan is to obliterate anyone speaking for health care reform at these meetings.
The situation seems to call for a temporary suspension of our belief in the completely open forum. Perhaps, when the jerk or jerks turn up, shouting their abuse of the Rep, we should physically form a tight circle of opposition around them and start loudly chanting "Shut The Fuck Up!". Give them a good taste of in-your-face hostility. No fisticuffs, of course, let them throw the first punch. Make sure they're video'd if and when they do. But give them a strong taste of how it feels like to be on the receiving end of their viciousness.
I know, it's not how we operate. But if they will not abide by the rules of order for a town hall meeting, they must be invited to leave it, and if only fear convinces them that maybe they shouldn't be there, then I suggest that they be made fearful.
I also think CityGuy's suggestion that attendants prove that they are constituents may be a big help in keeping these meetings civil. When one is surrounded by one's neighbors, one is less likely to cheerfully piss them all off.
August 4, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink