Congressman Rothman should be ready for people to try and "rattle him"

by: Jason Springer

Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 10:30:00 AM EDT

Congressman Rothman announced the upcoming dates and locations of his listening tour around the 9th district. They're listed on his Congressional website. But these events have the potential to be unlike any in past years, because of a concerted effort to disrupt any public discussion from occuring. Via Think Progress:

The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress:

- Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington."
- Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early."
- Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: -The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."

Think it's a joke, check out what they did to Congressman Lloyd Doggett in Texas and Senator Arlen Specter in PA. Congress members need to be prepared because the wrong reaction will live on youtube much longer than the discussion they are trying to engage in. It's one thing to have a discussion about the issues with your representative, it's quite another to astroturf a crowd with people that have no intentions of discussing anything at all. And it's a shame too, because some people are bringing up legitimate concerns, but the party of 'No' continues to overshadow them too.

Jason Springer :: Congressman Rothman should be ready for people to try and "rattle him"

Tags: listening tour, Town hall, Steve Rothman, (All Tags)

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Congressman Rothman should be ready for people to try and "rattle him" | 4 comments

Limit the crowd (4.00 / 1)

They should require that people show they are from his district before allowing them in.

DBK

by: DBK @ Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 14:43:56 PM UTC

These Are Insurance Industry Whores.... (0.00 / 0)

...at best, and brainwashed "true believers" at worst. Either way they are promoting a corrupt maleficent life denying position that kills 20 thousand uncovered American each year. The status quo is THAT bad.

It's so ironic that Obama and nice Dems like Rothman were led to believe that they could work out some kind of compromise with the health insurance industry in which a real public option would be "permitted" by these greedy scumbags.

30% of every dollar spent on healthcare goes into the coffers/expenses of the insurance companies......who, by the way, PROVIDE NO HEALTHCARE!!!

And now the insurance companies are spending millions of dollars a DAY to terrorize the American public into thinking that any kind of public option or single payer would be the end of the world.

And these bastards are using the premium dollars of the very people they are trying to terrorize to pay for the lobbying, the PR and the campaign "contributons".

Can you see ho effing evil and insidious this is???

I wish Obama had the balls to have simply gone straigt for a single payer program and tell the health insurance companies to, figuratively, drop dead. After all, the health insurance industry is indirectly responsible fpr the DEATHS of about 20,000 Americans EACH YEAR who are uncovered and die as a result.

Without the evil resistance from the health insurance industry we would have had national health insurance in 1947 when Truman first proposed it. MILLIONS of Americans have DIED since then because these greedy evil pieces of shit want to hold on to thier bloody profits!!! And the whole quality of life for all Americans has been crappier than it had to be because of the greedy selfish morally bankrupt health insurance indistry.

You can't compromise with these incorrigible bastards!!! They will come back at you from beind any "deal" and rip your heart out.

It's understandable on one level. These are corporations whose sole function is to make money and to pay it's executives as much as possible in the process. Every penny they actually spend on health care is seen by them as a LOSS!!!

So now we have paid and brainwashed assholes disrupting town hall meetings...I suggest that Rothman join in with the supporters of HR676 as a co-sponsor.

The line we get is that single payer is not "politically feasible" well, if all the Dems voted for it it would be a done deal!!!

If anything passes, even if it has a "Public Option" you can rest assured that the insurance companies will not accept it. They will do all they can to sabotage anything good....that's their job. And the Republicans and the Fux News crowd will be doing all they can to confound, confuse, distort, and destroy even a watered down bs public option.

This issue ain't going away!

by: Nick Lento @ Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 15:28:28 PM UTC

Reprehensible (0.00 / 0)

The way the thugs acted out at the town halls reminded me of the bad old days at BCDO elections.

That ain't democracy folks.

One Vote. Yours. It really does matter.

by: carolh @ Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 15:31:33 PM UTC

Eh, fight fire with fire (0.00 / 0)

You know the game plan, so you know how to deflate it. Their strength is in the perception of numbers. Bring actual numbers. Also, videotape them making idiots out of themselves. A "you're trusting these people's opinion?" would probably go a long way toward swaying fence sitters.

by: rmfretz @ Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 16:54:29 PM UTC