So Let the Sideshow Begin

This way to the big top.

I went to one of Representative Jay Inslee's town hall meetings over this past weekend. It was, as I expected, a circus part of the time. Both sides came with their minds made up, and while it didn't degenerate into both sides shouting at each other, there was a lot of shouting. There were several occasions where the anti-reform bill crowd burst into calls of "Liar!" Some of them shouted it, and some of them screamed it, but all of them had, apparently, decided that whenever Representative Inslee said something that they didn't appreciate, that he must be lying. Interestingly, really loud outbursts while someone was speaking to the Representative spurred the crowd into a collective "shush," that continued until the disturbance abated.

Of course, the anti-reform bill section of the audience was not a unified as Congressional critics of the plan would like us to believe. Their objections were all over the map, and this meant that some of them were mutually exclusive. To wit, what one critic called a potential unintended consequence of the plan, another critic termed an intentional hidden agenda, and so on. Of course, by the same token, the pro-reform bill crowd wasn't particularly unified either, and there were clearly a number of people who didn't feel the plans currently on the table went far enough.

In the end, Representative Inslee had some good information, but not very much of it (he only spoke for 15 minutes). The question-and-answer session that followed was, predictably, dominated by political talking points thinly disguised as questions. But there were some good ones that focused squarely on the topic at hand, and carried no ideological baggage. Maybe it's telling that I can only remember one of them, even though I'm pretty sure there were two or three. A young woman asked, if one were denied coverage for a given procedure, they could simply pay for it themselves out of pocket. (Apparently, in Canada and the U.K., you can't.) While she prefaced it with a story about her husband, she didn't slant the question one way or another.

Representative Inslee answering a question.

The strangest part of the whole scene was the "March of Signs" (Hey, it's a good a name as any.), that started about 20 minutes before things actually got going. People would take their signs, and walk around the room holding them up, to the cheers or jeers of the crowd. It was one at a time at first, but then people started going two or three at a time, both sides jumbled together, and things became really raucous.

They may as well have simply read "Applause."

American political life is evolving into a culture of "no," for one simple reason. While people will become quite agitated and animated in their insistence that their representatives put a halt to any policy objective advanced by the other side, they do not bring that same level of energy to calls for a better solution from their own side, even if they claim to be fatally dissatisfied with the status quo.

Cameleopard

Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle in on his way out, having come in third in a top-two primary election. A common criticism of the soon-to-be ex-mayor is that he ran Seattle City Hall too much like Chicago City Hall. This tell you one thing about a number of Mayor Nickels' critics - they've never lived in Chicago. Despite being a native of the Windy City myself, I don't consider myself an expert on the ins and outs of the city's political structure, but I do know what passes for a major scandal here in the Emerald City wouldn't even make the papers in Chicago. But I understand the logic. People here who considered Nickels corrupt saw a parallel in Chicago's infamous machine politics. And, not knowing any better, they were unable to tell the two apart.

The criticism that President Obama is a Socialist seems to work from the same principle - that is, that many (if not all) of the people who sincerely believe that the President is a Socialist have clearly never actually met one. Or, despite the rather close proximity of the Castro and Chavez regimes, understand how a socialist leader would operate. Again, not that I'm an expert on Socialism, but I have actually met a few living, breathing, card-carrying Socialists. I haven't spoken to one since the election, but I doubt they're exactly pleased with the current resident of the White House, any more than they were with his predecessor.

Okay, New Rule

Sometimes, you really have to wonder if politicians actually give a rip.

Once upon a time, the Governor of Massachusetts had the power to immediately appoint a new Senator to fill a vacant seat. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

But then, two things happened. Mitt Romney became Governor, and John Kerry ran for President. If Senator Kerry had won, he would have had to resign his seat. Massachusetts Democrats, fearing that the Republican Romney would appoint another Republican to the now-vacant Senate seat, changed the rules, so that a vacant Senate seat would be filled by a special election, to be held within 145 to 160 days after the seat becomes vacant.

But then, two more things happened. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, was elected to become Governor, and Senator Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps coming to terms with his own mortality, Kennedy realized that if he died, Senate Democrats would be down a vote - and that one vote might make all the difference. So rather than leave the Democratic caucus down a vote, potentially for several months, Kennedy is asking for the law to be changed back to the way it was.

I've got a better idea - just pass a law that says vacant seats shall be filled in whatever way is most politically beneficial to Democrats, and leave it at that. It's simpler and more honest.

On What Planet Do You Spend Most Of Your Time?

"Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it."
Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass)

Despite the fact that Barney Frank gets on my nerves, I have to really hand it to him. His rebuttal of one of the "President Obama is a Nazi" fruitcakes at a town meeting was spectacular. He's going to take heat from Fox News and conservative activists for being "disrespectful," but since nothing other than cringing obsequiousness would be acceptable to them anyway, who the Hell cares?

I also appreciate the fact that Frank was unafraid to call the commenter out on the fact that she'd come to the meeting with her mind made up - and therefore was using her "question" to be insulting to both the President and the Representative, rather than as a request for information.