Arlen Specter « Healthcare Horserace

Town Hall Diaries Part 7: The Obama Plants Need Watering

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Political opportunist Senator Arlen Specter held a town hall event in the rural western Pennsylvania town of Kittanning on Thursday, August 13th. This was the now-Democratic senator’s fourth town hall meeting in three days.

Griff Jenkins, a FOX News correspondent who was covering the health care forum for On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, said that about a thousand people filled the parking lot where the event was being held, but only two hundred were actually able to make it inside.

Still, passions on both sides of the debate clashed – not violently, but quite loudly – out in the parking lot before the meeting began. Flopping Aces pointed out a woman who was in favor of the president’s public-option health care proposal holding a sign that said, “Yelling is Counter Productive!” And yet, if you watch the video below, you will notice the woman shouting several times, including chants of “Health care now!” Hmm, hypocrites? Nah!

That woman was just one individual out of three busloads of ACORN/Union drones brought in from the inner city to intimidate local residents and create the faux appearance of support for President Obama’s health care legislation in rural America. Healthcare for America Now, a front organization for rich liberal like George Soros, organized and paid for the thugs to be bused in.

Thankfully, very few of them, if any at all, were able to actually make it into the location of the town hall meeting. A commenter named Judy over at Greta Wire had this to say:

“Acorn supplied 2 bus full of protestors but they arrived too late to be admitted into the meeting. Many of us here in Western PA were privy to the automated calls and emails telling supporters to arrive at 1pm (for a 3pm town hall!!) We all showed up at 11-noon and beat them to the punch. BTW the acorn buses pulled into the lot precisely at 1pm.”

And here is a video of the crowd in the parking lot shouting “Don’t Come Back!” as the buses full of the ACORN drones leave:

In St. Louis, the local Missouri ACORN organization held a ‘massive’ rally on Friday, August 14th, in the University City Loop, which is conveniently located near both Senator Claire McCaskill’s office and the St. Louis HQ for SEIU. But, despite the proximity to both Democratic-based locations, the turnout was (to say the least) underwhelming. Sharp Elbows StL has provided the video clip below as well as bit more extensive coverage of the event on their website.

President Obama’s own personal civilian army – volunteers for Organizing for America – were outside a town hall event in Ohio for Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. An interviewer asked these volunteers, mainly college students or recent graduates, direct questions about the president’s public option health care proposal. Their responses are vastly disappointing in that it demonstrates how little these paid volunteers (there’s an oxymoron if you ever heard one) know about the legislation they are advocating for.

Tags: ACORN, Arlen Specter, Fox News, George Soros, Greta Van Susteren, HCAN, Healthcare for America Now, Missouri, Ohio, On the Record, Organizing for America, Pennsylvania, SEIU, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Sherrod Brown, St. Louis, Town hall
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Reacting to the ‘mob’

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

The party in power is held to a higher standard than the opposition. By the same token, those holding town hall meetings are held to a higher standard of decorum than those who attend.

How representatives handle protests at their town hall forums tells a lot about their leadership skill, and how the media reacts to the growing dissent tells a lot about their bias.

In Arlen Specter faces fury: ‘You work for us!’ Politico’s Andy Barr gives Democrat Specter mixed reviews for his performance.

Specter (D-Pa.) fired back Tuesday at a raucous town hall audience that booed and jeered him for more than an hour.

Specter immediately tried to temper the rough crowd, which started booing him before the question-and-answer session even began, with the blunt warning: “If you want to stay in here, we’re not going to tolerate any demonstrations or booing. So, it’s up to you.”

But Specter’s assertion that he was not required to attend the town hall was not received so well.

“You work for us!” shouted several members of the crowd. “You work for us!”

Hot Air Blogger Ed Morrissey had a clever twist on the exchange, “He then angered the crowd all over again by reminding them how lucky they are to be in his presence at all.”

Morrissey took exception to the Senator’s lament that he didn’t get any extra pay for holding town hall meetings to get yelled at.

He makes $174,000 a year for a job that requires him to be at the office four days a week when Congress is in session, which is only about 2/3rds of the year. He has a gold-plated medical and dental package that Specter certainly won’t surrender for the ObamaCare system he’s pushing. Thanks to his 30 years in the Senate, he’s eligible for a pension that will pay 80% of that salary and keep his benefits package in place until he dies.

How many of his constituents have that kind of job? How many do you think will be impressed that Specter deigned to receive his subjects without getting a bonus payment to do it? What a great example of Beltway arrogance.

The New Republic’s Michael Crowley heaped praise on Claire McCaskill’s handling of town hall disruptions.

She was pitch-perfect: polite and responsive without being a pushover, armed with clear and compelling facts (emphasis on things any health reform bill will *not* do) and firm when necessary. She shamed one of the loudest hecklers by reminding him that “we have good manners in Missouri,” but without losing her own temper.

Blogger Matthew Yglesias asks the question many liberals are probably feeling:

I don’t understand why members of congress are holding these town halls. There’s been so much focus on the spectacle of the whole thing that nobody’s really stepped back and explained what the purpose of these events are other than to give us pundits something to chat about.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell took a new tack in painting the health care opposition with the birther label.

Rendell, a Democrat, told Politico’s Barr that “much of the outrage being demonstrated at town halls across the country comes from so-called birthers, whom he described as ‘absolutely nuts’.”

“I’ve never seen ugliness and rage like this in all my years in office,” the two-term governor and former Philadelphia mayor said.

While birthers are a small fraction of the opposition, both Specter and McCaskill were shouted down by audience members who questioned the president’s natural born citizen credentials, and the issue has nearly derailed most town hall meetings on health care reform.

Tags: Andy Barr, Arlen Specter, birther, Claire McCaskill, Ed Morrissey, Ed Rendell, Hot Air, Matthew Yglesias, Michael Crowley, Politico, The New Republic, Town hall
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Are conservatives ‘blowing their chance’ at the town hall?

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

After a protestor came armed with a gun to the President’s New Hampshire town hall meeting Tuesday, many are asking if the town hall meeting format has jumped the shark or if conservatives are overstepping the bounds of civilized society.

Even blogger Allahpundit, writing for the conservative Hot Air site, put gun rights health care reform opponent William Kostric in the “spiteful incendiary douchebag” category.

The worst part? According to a new book about the Secret Service, the number of daily threats against Obama is already four times the number Bush faced. Every pair of eyes diverted to watch this tool make his point about liberty is a pair that’s not watching the rest of the crowd.

A large segment of the American public are unhappy with the direction health care reform is taking on The Hill. A smaller, but more vocal and more publicized segment of the conservative base has promoted disruption and chaos at town hall meetings throughout the country.

Is the disruption of the public debate hurting conservative goals or dooming reform efforts during the month of town hall hell that is August?

Atlantic.com writer Marc Armbinder falls firmly within the “shame on organized disruption” camp.

Remember, the target audience for Republicans is Blue Dog Democrats in Congress. They won’t panic unless they perceive organic anxiety. The White House’s goal was to prevent the Blue Dogs from panicking. The swing constituents in these congressional districts aren’t angry Republicans, and the Blue Dogs know this. They’re political independents for whom the sanctity of the process is important. These are the type of voters who like President Obama because he appears willing to bring people together even though they don’t agree with their policies.

But NextRight’s Patrick Ruffini argues that organized opposition movements are acceptably disorganized in the public eye.

For the Bush Administration in mocking the anti-war movement, and Obama deligitimizing the “mob,” what both White Houses missed is that the general public has different sets of expectations for political leaders and opposition movements. Oppositions are supposed to be loud, vocal, off-message, inchoate. The President of the United States is supposed to have his stuff together.

But like the Bush Administration’s anti-war protests, the Obama administration is facing a vocal opposition who’s main points are impossible to safely ignore, Ruffini points out. “The public option is, at the very minimum, now perceived as divisive. As controversial. As anything but the sweetness and light upon which Obama uniquely depended to govern.”

It is becoming clear in some contexts that the opposition cannot be dismissed as corporate-funded, Republican-staffed, astroturf movements - the line the press has been happy to promote so far.

The New York Times reported that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa) clearly faced a majority conservative, disenfranchised and unhappy audience at Tuesday’s town hall meeting.

The tired and most-often unverified media line that these are organized or paid agitators, not a grass-roots opposition, is getting threadbare as more meetings are met with higher levels of opposition – no mere seeding of the front ranks of the audience.

CNN political analyst David Gergen asks the question: Are town hall protests threatening health care reform?

Beneath the din it is also obvious that there is a growing bloc of voters on the right and a good many in the middle who are becoming passionately opposed to the overhaul of the health care system envisioned by liberal Democrats, especially in the House. It is the intensity of their feeling as much as the size of the crowd that may shape the voting on Capitol Hill in coming weeks.

Tags: Allahpundit, Arlen Specter, Atlantic.com, CNN, David Gergen, health care reform, Marc Armbinder, New York Times, NextRight, Patrick Ruffini, Town hall, William Kostric
Posted in Eye on the Media, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

What A Spectacle: Specter’s Town Hall Meeting

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Video 1

For an even better video Click here for CNN’s video. Ranting older man yelling at Senator Specter and being shoved around!

Tags: Arlen Specter
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AFL-CIO NOW Labels American Liberty Alliance, Freedomworks ‘Extremists’

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Mike Hall and the rest of the AFL-CIO NOW blog staff have fallen right in line – as have other far-left internet ‘news’ sites like Daily Kos, Think Progress, and the America Blog have done – with the latest marching orders sent down from on high at the White House to report any ‘disinformation’ being spread by libertarian/Republican ‘extremists’ – Freedomworks, American Liberty Alliance, and Right Principles – in regards to the president’s health care reform legislation.

Hall’s August 4^th article blasting conservative non-profit organizations such as the ALA and Freedomworks bares little resemblance to the truth of actual events. The author can’t even start his article off on the right foot. In his opening paragraph, he trots out the tired ol’ liberal cliché “Bush was selected, not elected,” comparing the ‘mob tactics’ of the anti-health care reform activists to what went on in Florida in 2000.

“Mob rule tactics stopped the Florida vote count during the contested 2000 presidential elections, ultimately turning the presidency over to George W. Bush—a strategy now emulated by the anti-health care reform lobby”

Umm … no, Michael, that would have been the Supreme Court of the United States. Without getting into too much detail (Larry Schweikart’s 48 Liberal Lies About American History covers the issue very nicely) and thus diverting attention away from the matter at hand, the SCOTUS decided in a 7-2 decision that ‘selective recounting’ – the precise manner in which Al Gore and the Florida Supreme Court wanted the votes recounted in the heavily Democratic counties of Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Volusia – was unconstitutional. This in turn allowed Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to certify Bush as the winner of the state of Florida and thus the victor of the 2000 presidential election.

It seems as though Hall and the Daily Kos, in referring to tea party protestors as ‘extremists’ and ‘crazies’, have chosen to take the same route Rep. Lloyd Doggett did a few days ago, resorting to childish name calling and playing the victim-card rather than engage in intellectual and constructive political dialogue.

Hall claims that the grassroots organization,Right Principles, is ‘anti-government’ and yet if he actually took the time to visit the website and read the organization’s core beliefs (located right on the main home page) then he would know that the accusation is categorically false. The second …

“We believe to the fullest extent possible that governmental power should be devolved to the state and local level and that a free society prospers from and depends on the unbridled self-initiative of its people.”

… and the tenth …

“We seek the election of candidates for state and federal office who best reflect these stated core values. We believe that the fight for freedom and liberty is advanced by exposing ineffective or corrupt politicians and leading the charge to remove them from office through the electoral process.”

… of these beliefs make it distinctly clear the organization believes in a form of republican-style government. Just because they believe most of the power should be invested in the state and local governmental agencies rather the centralized federal bureaucracy does not make them ‘anti-government’.

The writer then asserts that these ‘coalition of ‘extremist’ groups’ have a written game plan - of course, he’d be hammering them for being a disorganized rabble if they didn’t - and that the operators of Right Principles have indoctrinated their followers in how to take over a town hall meeting …

“Be disruptive early and often. You need to rock the boat early in the rep’s presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out. The goal is to rattle him…stand up and shout out. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions”

And yet Hall fails to cite a specific source in order to back up this assertion. All he does is simply state in his article that the organizers of the grassroots group, Right Principles, is behind this statement. In quotes, no less. But with no citation pointing to an exact article or document making this declaration and nothing on their website related to this subject, it can just as easily be assumed that Hall is making this up.

Hall then posts a comment by Joe Sudbay of the America Blog describing the tactics of protestors as “thuggery that undermines democratic principles.” First off, Joe, we do not live in a democracy, but rather a constitutional republic. There is a substantial difference between the two. But that is beside the point. If you really want to know about ‘thuggery’ then why don’t you ask Mike Hall? The union hit men he buddies around with ought to know all about that.

And, finally, let’s wrap things up with an examination of how Mike Hall (and his fellow far-left mouth-pieces) observed specific town hall events/tea party protests …

Hall claims that protestors that attended the town hall meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and political opportunist Senator Arlen Specter held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this past Sunday ” shouted and booed loudly enough to drown out remarks from both officials and questions from the audience.” Andrew Monaghan at Panzramic posted YouTube videos of the whole event and they paint an entirely different picture. Andrew has even posted a follow-up video clarifying that these protestors are not being sent out by insurance companies. Amazingly, Hall fails to mention the ACORN and SEIU drones that were in force at the event. Specifically he glosses over how ACORN exploited the amputees, the handicapped, and the disabled to push their agenda.

He cites a Think Progress article which states that “this growing phenomenon is often marked by violence and absurdity,” referring specifically to a rally in Salisbury, Maryland, where an unidentified man was seen hanging Rep. Frank Kratovil in effigy. As Glenn Thrush at Politico and Joe Albero at Salisbury News reported, the event was not officially sanctioned by Americans for Prosperity. A spokeswoman for the organization stated that they “held an event the previous night, where this man passed out flyers asking people to join him the next day at the office for a protest. That is how some AFP members ended up coming, but they were disgusted by his behavior.” Albero confirmed that many who saw the display “immediately walked away and wanted nothing to do with it.”

Tags: ACORN, AFL-CIO NOW, AFP, Al Gore, ALA, America Blog, American Liberty Alliance, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Andrew Monaghan, Arlen Specter, Daily Kos, Florida, Freedomworks, George W. Bush, Glenn Thrush, Health and Human Services, health care reform, Joe Albero, Joe Sudbay, Katherine Harris, Kathleen, labor unions, Larry Schweikart, Maryland, Michelle Malkin, Mike Hall, Panzramic, Politico, Rep. Frank Kratovil, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Right Principles, SCOTUS, Senator Arlen Specter, Supreme Court, Tea Party, The Daily Kos, Think Progress, Union, unions, YouTube
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Town Hall Diaries Part 1: Rep. Doggett, Sen. Specter Get Early Earful

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

The big Recess Rally isn’t for another nineteen days, but with House representatives breaking for recess this past Friday and a town hall meeting on health care in Philadelphia, some grass-roots activists decided to stir things up a bit early.

The first video comes from Austin, Texas, where Democratic Representative for the 25th Congressional District Lloyd Doggett was greeted in hometown by (to put it lightly) a fair number of unhappy constituents. Their message to the legislator was simple: Just Say No!

To say the turnout in Austin for the congressman was impressive would be an understatement. Yes, the district did vote for Bush in 2000, but four years later it went to Kerry. Right now, according to the Cook Political Report, District 25 has a partisan voting index of D+6.

The second video was taken on Sunday, August 2^nd, at a town hall meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and political opportunist Senator Arlen Specter held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Close to a thousand people showed up to the event.

It was at this meeting that Senator Specter announced his support for a single payer health insurance system. He likely did so in an effort to cater to the far left at a time when he is losing serious ground to Republican opponent Patrick Toomey. The latest poll from Quinnipiac University places Specter only one-point ahead of Toomey at this point in the race. Specter, however, probably shot himself in the foot when he urged Congress to “do this fast” judging by the crowd reaction.

ACORN, of course, was out in force exploiting amputees, the handicapped, and the disabled to further their cause.

Without a doubt, the best question at the event came from a woman who asked point-blank “how can you manage health care when you can’t manage cash for clunkers?”

Tags: ACORN, Arlen Specter, Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, Lloyd Doggett, Patrick Toomey, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Recess Rally, Representative Lloyd Doggett, Senator Arlen Specter, single payer, single-payer system, Texas, The Cook Political Report
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Articles Tagged ‘Arlen Specter’