Town Hall War of Words Continues

By Evan at August 16th, 2009.

The town hall battles of the past few weeks have indeed revealed one thing: some in Washington’s Democratic Congressional delegation are increasingly unafraid to get in the trenches and lob partisan bombs.

But given their often genteel manner of years past, you might say its No More Mr. Nice Guy for them.

Likely emboldened by having faced little opposition in recent election years, and thus feeling safe in their positions, more of the delegation is willing to ride the partisan hard edge. The hard party line was once left to be carried by other members of the delegation in safer liberal districts, like Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott (D-07).

For McDermott’s part, at a town hall meeting he held during a Democratic Party meeting in West Seattle last week, the state’s most liberal Congressman declared of the President’s embattled reform agenda, “This is War.”

But with a Democratic White House, and Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, some might interpret this new brashness as simply misplaced confidence. Two cases in point…

First, at a massive town hall last week he held in Everett, Representative Rick Larsen (D-02) ridiculed one woman who politely stood to ask a question. In his reply, Larsen quipped: “I’ve got facts on my side…you’ve got Glenn Beck.” Some liberal bloggers cheered his flippant response which made its way to YouTube:

Second, a report from Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of liberal bloggers and politicos held this year in Pennsylvania, may signal that another liberal member of the delegation has joined in the verbal war of words.

Burner paraphrased complaints from Washington state Democrat Rep. Jay Inslee that “I’m going to town halls, and the tea baggers are there and my friends are not.”

“Tea baggers,” is a profane reference to an explicit sex act, which some liberals use to disparage those organizing and attending T.E.A. Party protests (the acronym stands for Taxed Enough Already). Burner in the post linked above refers to Darcy Burner, the liberal anti-war candidate who ran two failed bids to unseat well-known incumbent Representative Dave Reichert (R-08).

Representative Inslee (D-01), who has scheduled a town hall in Kitsap County later this month, is rumored to have designs on the Governor’s Mansion in 2012. If that’s true, Inslee’s attempt to claim quick credit for his recent work on health care, could be a sign he’s looking to run up a record of fresh legislative accomplishments.

NOTE: Video of Inslee speaking about the need to “get our people off their couches” was captured and posted by a liberal blogger attending the Pennsylvania conference.

Back in 1994, Inslee lost his re-election bid to Congress during the so-called Republican Revolution. That result is cited, in part, as the electorate’s response to President Clinton’s efforts to push through universal health care.

Could it be the specter of a 1994 repeat in 2010 that has Washington’s liberals running for the partisan trenches? Or is it the length of their tenure that has suddenly freed more members of the Democratic delegation to finally speak their minds?

Tags: featured, Health Care, Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott, Netroots Nation, Rick Larsen, Town Halls