Running Scared: Baird Backs Out of Town Hall

Brian Baird continues to sink deeper into the partisan pit sands. In doing so, he’s losing any remaining semblance of being a moderate.

A few weeks back, I managed to join one of his “tele-town hall” calls, after a source sent me the call-in info.  Last week I blew the top off Baird’s sham tele-town halls. Among other questionable practices, Baird intentionally keeps the date, time, and call-in info for his “tele-town halls” secret. Indeed, you might say his calls amount to taxpayer funded private focus groups.

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Murray Says She’ll “Wait and See” on Health Care

Washington’s Senior U.S. Senator Patty Murray tells KOMO News she’s going to “wait and see” before she votes on health care reform. Some might find that rhetoric strange, considering Murray is part of the Democratic Senate Leadership where her Senate office website says she’s helping “set the agenda and advance…priorities.”

Murray also disagreed when asked if widespread outrage expressed at town halls across the country has the President and Congress changing course from a “public option.” Of courese, Murray hasn’t held any public town halls. And she’s still waiting to see the final bill, remember.

Town Halls: DeFazio Grilled, Baird Surfaces

First, to Oregon, where Rep. DeFazio faced tough but civil questioning from several town hall audiences tonight:

Across the Columbia River to the north, Brian Baird finally surfaced from his secret hiding place to face constituents. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t universally happy with him…

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Town Hall War of Words Continues

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…

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Are Murray, Cantwell, Dicks, and Baird Out of Touch?

KOMO 4 has more on Rick Larsen’s town hall event held yesterday in Mt. Vernon:

As has been happening in many places across the country, the event drew an overflow crowd of attendees. But an important point was made in the news segment, that shouldn’t be lost on us.  ”It’s important to have these town halls,” said one attendee, even if no minds are changed.

Why?  It’s democracy, stupid.

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