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| Specter: Town halls shouldn't dominate process |
| 2009-08-17 |
| Lawmakers are debating along party lines whether the outrage expressed at town hall meetings around the country is representative of wide opposition to healthcare reform. Democrats, led by one of the party's newest members, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), said Sunday those shouting at town halls represent a minority of Americans. As such, Specter and others said Congress should be careful not to let the events drive substance on the healthcare legislative debate. "I think we have to bear in mind that although those people need to be heard and have a right to be heard, that they're not really representative of America, in my opinion," Specter said on ABC's "This Week." Specter's town halls with angry residents received considerable media attention all week, but he said they shouldn't dominate public debate. Specter also suggested the town halls are a part of a political effort to bring down President Barack Obama. "We have to be careful here not to let those town meetings dominate the scene and influence what we do on health policy... There's a real effort here to make this the president's 'Waterloo' ... We can't allow these meetings to dominate the political process. That would be destructive of what we need to do," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 No. However, most Americans would rather not bother with the whole mess - until it bites them in the pocketbook [like a Stamp Act] to get their focused attention. Probably be better to simply draft people from the voter rolls to get a cross section. It would quickly clear the voter rolls as well of the dead, illegal, or multiple registered. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-08-17 21:06 |
| #7 Is the demographic make-up of Congress Members really "representative of America"... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-08-17 18:38 |
| #6 Not in Pennsylvania, really. The funny thing is, I've voted for Specter every time he was up for election during my political lifetime. I don't think he understands what he's done. He's sucking up to the Democratic activists, who apparently hate him, judging from the Netroots straw poll. He's alienated a significant fraction of his squish Republican supporters - those who were actual moderates, and not just third-way types who made a fetish of 'moderation'. The conservatives have *always* hated him, and mostly voted for him with one hand & the other holding their nostrils closed. The rate he's going, the only people who'll vote for him are those who don't pay attention & just recognize his name as being The Guy Who You Vote For. That's what, twenty-thirty percent of the electorate? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-08-17 13:19 |
| #5 they're not really representative of America, in my opinion Doesn't get out much, does he? |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2009-08-17 12:02 |
| #4 Could this become Spector's Waterloo? One can hope. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2009-08-17 11:17 |
| #3 re⋅pub⋅lic –noun 1. a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. 2. any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth. 3. a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state. You better listen to us, or we will put you out of a job. Fact, not fiction. |
| Posted by: Percy Spons4194 2009-08-17 07:51 |
| #2 So, in other words, "I'm gonna vote for it, I don't give a crap what any of you peasants think, deal with it, suckas!!!!" |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-08-17 07:03 |
| #1 I respect you for following through Specter. I respect Toomey more. "Those people" ARE America, and to discredit them through your narrow exixtance and short lived is to demean them. I AM those people you bastard. Demean me at your peril you jerkoff. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-08-17 00:19 |