Health Wars (8/16/09)

Who knew they bred free-range chickens in the Granite State?:

Democratic Representative Paul Hodes (NH-02) has no publicly scheduled town hall meetings with constituents planned for the August recess but he will appear in Concord as the “featured guest” at the Blue Hampshire Bash, a party for liberal bloggers on August 24th, NowHampshire.com has learned.

Controversial San Francisco-based blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga will also be a featured guest at the event. …

News of Hodes’ participation in the Blue Hampshire Bash is causing some to question his priorities. In addition to holding no town hall events, which are vital opportunities for constituents to discuss issues with their members of congress, Hodes was criticized by a constituent in the media on Wednesday for refusing him an appointment.

Otherwise known as letting the Bolsheviks come to you.  Perhaps to use them as human shields against the "Nazi mobs" or something.  Maybe the Purpleshirts are stretched too thin?

Evidently the other half of the Granite Donknamic Duo was feeling even more skittish, in a "Runaway Bride" kinda way:

A second member of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is opting to meet with liberal bloggers instead of holding town hall meetings with constituents on the issue of health reform.

Representative Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) will speak in Pittsburg, PA today at Netroots Nation, an enclave of liberal bloggers intended to promote liberal public policy, educate activists on internet communication techniques and even enjoy “everything from massages to beer tastings to author signings.”

Netroots Nation is sponsored by several politically powerful unions as well as the influential liberal blog Daily Kos.

Shea-Porter has not held any town hall meetings with constituents this August recess and has no such publicly scheduled events for the balance of the month. Her office did not respond to our request for comment.

Well, you can't fault Hodes or S-P for their honesty; they're left wing extremist congresscritters seeking out left-wing extremist bloggers with whom to hide in the proverbial echo-chamber.  That's the constituency they WISH they had, and rather than go through the tiresome rigamorole of holding town hall meetings with their ACTUAL constituents whom they've already pissed off and alienated six ways from Sunday by now and enduring their demands to put off Utopia and valiantly attempting to "educate" them and "raise their collective consciousness" by denouncing them as fascist hottentots, they're just cutting to the chase.  Or, in other words, the same likely 2010 result with far less effort.  Or, to distill it even more, the closest that any leftie will ever come to "efficiency" short of just resigning and going home.

Which would be the closest they'll ever come to performing a genuine public service either, come to think of it.

Well, it took a coupla days, but the NH media did notice - and loudly condemn:

As of this writing, however, U.S. Representatives Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter have scheduled no open public forums to discuss either the healthcare legislation or any other matters. (Hodes has met with residents of a single retirement home in Hanover.)

Are they reluctant to hear unfiltered, unscreened questions and feedback on this important bill from their constituents in a forum in which other constituents can also hear and participate?

A question most delightfully rhetorical.  But also a question one would expect from a center-right publication like the New Hampshire Union-Leader, no?  Betcha the Portsmouth Herald remained faithfully silent on its state's Donkressional drones fleeing in the middle of the metaphorical night.

Looks like I lose that bet:

The whole concept of a telephone town hall meeting is flawed. We live in New England, where the town meeting form of government originated and where it still thrives. We know how a town meeting is supposed to work, and it certainly isn’t by telephone. It is neighbors meeting face-to-face to discuss the issues. …

The conclusion has to be that [Representative Carol Shea-Porter] doesn’t want to face questions from people who disagree with her positions, particularly on health care. We find this curious and regrettable, especially given her history of challenging her predecessor, Jeb Bradley, for nearly two years during his town hall meetings. Some might say she hounded him. (In the meantime, she was scheduled to travel to Pittsburgh on Friday for a liberal bloggers’ convention, where she was to take part in a session titled ‘Making Change Happen’.)

Guess this lib babes-in-the-woods-ism is a more widespread folly than anybody had imagined.  Or maybe it isn't so surprising, given the Left's ingrained, inbred moral supremacism.  Leavened with a like overabundance of arrogance and self-righteousness, it is to be expected that neoBolshevik propagandists should have difficulty accepting that an extremist agitator that relentlessly and boorishly heckled her predecessor would be cynical enough to imperiously duck even the appearance of accountability in her own right once the power pump was on the other foot.

Want an even bigger irony?  It may be that neither the Donkressmen nor their grassroots purist Librisees realize that the Unholy Crusade of The One will never end.  The Left will never run out of Utopias to pursue or enemies to demonize and destroy to get there.  As Trumpkin said of the Telmarines, "It's what they do."  Paul Hodes and Carol Shae-Porter will simply always take part "via satellite".

Meanwhile, the vaunted "public option" has been declared "DOA" in the Senate, and even Red Barry's health uberfueheress is signalling a walk-back:

Translation: Senator Conrad wants to hide the public option inside "co-op" camouflage, and Secretary Sebelius is most likely floating this canary in the mineshaft to just the sulfur content of Obamanation's likely response.  Hope she's got on her running shoes for the inevitable sprint-back from her walk-back.

Because, as we're all supposed to know if we've swilled the mandatory Barry-Cool-Aid dietary supplement, BarryCare isn't about Barry, and it [snicker] isn't about politics, either.