A couple of interesting items concerning Congressman Perriello’s telephone town hall were made know to me several hours ago. A couple told me that last night they received a call from Perriello’s office asking them if they would be interested in participating in the town hall teleconference. They of course agreed because they had a question that they wanted to ask Tom. I had heard on the radio that this event, according to the congressman’s people, was very successful with up to 8000 people participating. Now I wonder as to why they would have to call people to invite them if this was such a successful event. I certainly understand as to why no one wanted to be involved in this affair, after 21 town halls in which Tom ignored the will of the people, why bother.
The fact that they had to call people to participate was not the most interesting fact that was related to me. What really caught my ear was how the whole event was handled. If a person had a question they wanted to ask the congressman they were asked to press the star key and then someone would come on the line and asked them to state the nature of their question. They were then placed into the queue to be called on later to make their inquiry. The people who related this information to me had been in line to ask a question but were not called on before the time ran out. They did tell me though that all but one question the congressman was asked were real softballs and the one “tough” question was not very confrontational.
So if I have this straight in order to have this successful town hall they had to round up people to participate and when they did they screened the people so as not to have any tough questions. This farce was perpetrated in order for Tom to look good so he could still appear to be a man of the people.
As someone at a recent rally stated “we have had enough of this tomfoolery”.
4 Comments
I’m really trying to understand your critque…and really struggling.
First, what’s wrong with advertising a townhall for constituents? Clearly if they called your friend, the congressman wasn’t calling only supporters. Virgil Goode ran tele-townhalls all the time, and advertised them as well.
I’ve been on tele-townhalls before (Goode’s, Perriello’s, non-political ones). The way of ordering questions is standard operating procedure. Based on the service the Congressman was using, I know that they (like a radio station) don’t want to get the same question from everyone so they try and get a diverse array of questions. Are you’re advocating that there be no queue on an 8000 person town hall? That everyone should be able to shout?
I disagree with the comment that there were only easy questions. There were a lot of people wanting information and facts. Some very tough questions. Some easier ones from clear supporters. 90% of the people on the call seemed to appreciate it. But I’ let you draw your own conclusions on an event you didn’t participate in.
People wake up we need to send Tom Perriello to the same unemployment lines that have grown every month since he took office.
I was on the call last night. The one caller that posed a tough question for Tom was Matt in Farmville. He stated that he had lived in Canada and England and spent time in Australia. He talked about the outrageous taxes imposed upon the middle classes there to pay for substandard healthcare. Going as far as to say that the middle class in Australia weren’t able to afford air condition. Tom danced around that question with his standard “cherry picking” answer that most of us have grown tired of hearing as an answer to any question posed to him, and one that he used three times last night. Virginia called in, a healthcare worker, requesting less government regulations on healthcare and Tom assured her that this bill provided “more flexibility”. He was also quite proud of the fact that this bill would allow children to stay on their parents plan until they turned 27. He assured us that no illegals would be covered in this bill. I must say the most amusing call was from Susan (Smith Mt. Lake) who was very upset that Bob McDonnell was Gov. elect. She was concerned that, due to the possibility of states being able to “opt out” of this plan, Virginia would be the first state to do so. I got a good chuckle out of that! And was very proud of my fellow Virginians who turned out to vote for Bob & Ken.
On November 5th I met with Tom and his Legislative counsel Ericke. Ericke confirmed that we will not be able to keep our current healthcare. Oh you can if NOTHING changes. But what are the chances of that? Slim to none in my experience. You can’t add vision or dental to your policy, change deductibles or add your spouse.
This bill and our “representation” in congress in a farce to say the least.
I attended the House Call on Washington Rally last Thursday. Thanks to Bill Hay’s efforts, we had an appointment with Tom Perriello at 2:00. There were approximately 20-25 people in the room, we had exactly 13 minutes to discuss the health care plan two days before his vote, as he had to leave to ‘vote’ on another bill. He stated he was leaning ‘yes’ with the same tired explanations he used at the August town halls. He was clearly uncomfortable trying to explain why this bill was good for his constituents. I tried to ask specific questions on particular page numbers and sections of the bill and was referred to his assistant. I never received a reply before the vote. I chose not to participate in the telephone town hall, mainly as he was a week late trying to find out what his constituents were thinking. The Daily Progress Editorial also called him on this point and many others. He was merely going thru the motions, if he really wanted an honest discussion, this telephone town hall would have been done before he voted, not after.