Tea Party Mob Blocks Congressman From Helping Veterans, Seniors

5:31 pm EST August 5th, 2009 | News | 6 Comments

Of course, I would also argue that Rep. Brad Ellsworth – who is a blue dog and someone I wrote positively of in the past – helped to create this problem by dithering on health care reform.

Here’s how the program worked. Ellsworth would peridocally station himself at a public place in his district — at a grocery store, for instance — to answer questions from constituents, such as seniors and veterans wrestling with bureaucracy. Ellsworth was set to do this tomorrow.

But he concluded that Tea Party activists were likely to hijack the event by shouting about health care, so he cancelled the public appearance. ‘Our concern was that some of these same groups that have been disrupting other public events would also prevent these constituent events from taking place,’ Ellsworth spokesperson Liz Farrar tells me.

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6 Responses to “Tea Party Mob Blocks Congressman From Helping Veterans, Seniors”

  1. Duros62 says:
    August 5, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    I don’t know why he doesn’t use the Roveian tactic and surround himself with senior and vets. Let the tea baggers criticize the Desert Storm vet in a wheelchair, see how that goes.

  2. Dennis says:
    August 5, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Kind of a bogus headline, Oliver, seeing as how Ellsworth is only worried about protesters, and decided to hold private meetings for constituents instead. If you read the article in my hometown paper there, it sure doesn’t sound like mob people that are the ones that want to talk to him, but the people in his district who voted for him by a wide margin in the last two elections that have legitimate concerns.

    Ellsworth has health care meetings Thursday in Evansville

    This article doesn’t say anything about local veterans and seniors being blocked from getting his aid, either.

    Seriously, what is up with that? How you go from Sargent’s headline saying that the tea party threat complicated his ability to help seniors and veterans, itself bogus, to “Tea Party Mob Blocks Congressman From Helping Veterans, Seniors” is somewhat baffling, if not amusing.

  3. Sean D. Martin says:
    August 5, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Our concern was that some of these same groups that have been disrupting other public events would also prevent these constituent events from taking place,’ Ellsworth spokesperson Liz Farrar tells me.

    And, clearly, they did.

  4. Sean D. Martin says:
    August 6, 2009 at 6:29 pm

    matt621: A better headline would have been “Mere Thought of Dissenting Opinion Causes Democrat to Wet His Pants.”

    Mere possibility of dissenting opinion causes idiots to shout down any other voices.

    You can’t listen to dissenting opinions when only one side is allowed to speak.

  5. Sean D. Martin says:
    August 8, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    matt621: Can’t listen to dissenting opinoins if you cancel the appearance either.

    Hmm. Lemme see….

    One hand: Hold town hall meeting. Get yelled at by idiots. Hear no opinions from anyone (because everyone is either shouted down or shouting stupidity).

    Other hand: Cancel town hall. Get criticized by idiots. Hear no opinions.

    So, no opinions heard either way. I’d go with the other hand. At least the time could be spent on something productive and it avoids the downside of providing idiots with a forum to act like idiots.

  6. Dennis says:
    August 8, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    Sean, as I mentioned above, this is my hometown. Though I haven’t lived there for quite a while I do keep up with things there as I still have lots of friends and family there. Since Oliver posted this, I’ve been keeping track of the story, which sounded really bogus at the time. Turns out, the headline he chose was bogus; Ellsworth did what you said, he decided to move the meetings indoors and hold multiple 15 minute group meetings throughout the day. No report from the beginning to end mentioned anything about seniors and vets being denied access to Ellsworth or that ‘mobs were blocking Congressman from helping seniors and veterans’. Oliver being Oliver, what else is new, but the point is he still managed to see a lot of people from both sides of the aisle, and you’re right, he did endure a fair amount of criticism from those opposed to the bill.

    There’s a rally going on today outdoors sponsored by the SEIU in favor of the Democratic health plan. It’ll be interesting to see what the ‘mogs’ end up doing. Ellsworth says he hasn’t decided yet which way he’ll vote. But in those private meetings he held, both sides got to air their views. And no reports of any angry mobs denying seniors and vets help.

    Here’s the local Evansville paper with the stories on Ellsworth if you care.