Is Bobby Bright Another Pantywaist Congressman Afraid of His Constituents?
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Contact :
Matthew Hunter at 540.222.6318
mhunter@socialsecurityinstitute.com
Warrenton, Virginia (September 1, 2009)—A number of SSI supporters in the Montgomery, Alabama area have contacted us complaining about not being able to find Congressman Bobby Bright’s (AL-2) town-hall-meeting schedule and not being able to get straight answers out of him on how he intends to vote on issues related to healthcare reform. In response, SSI president Dr. Lawrence A. Hunter released the following statement:
“I called the Congressman’s office and asked the staffer who answered the phone to help me find the schedule. She did point me to the area on his webpage where the schedule is supposed to reside (Under ‘Latest News’ at http://www.bright.house.gov/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1) but when I finally found it (10:25 am central time), there was no schedule posted, including today’s schedule, which she said ‘should be there.’ I then ask her if it is the policy of the Congressman not to post his schedule of meetings any earlier than the day of the event. She said, ‘Well sometimes he posts them a day in advance.’
“Is Bobby Bright another one of those pantywaist Congressman afraid to talk to his own constituents? It looks that way.
“After getting a whiff of the stench of political cowardice, I explored Mr. Bright’s behavior a bit more and discovered this WWNT radio interview he gave last Friday in which he employs lots of typical Washington mumbo jumbo and double talk about giving unprecedented access to constituents and his ‘jam-packed schedule.’ But he avoided the real question people are asking—Why won’t he publicize his schedule?—by changing the subject and getting belligerent, a favorite tactic of Congress Critters under pressure. He challenged the interviewer, ‘Why should I change my schedule, which was made months in advance?’
“But of course, no one has asked him to CHANGE his schedule; just PUBLICIZE it and the SHOW UP when he says he will be there and provide adequate facilities to accommodate the large crowds that would show up. That said, one must question the prudence of a Congressman who refuses to adjust his schedule to accommodate constituents in light of the dramatic turn of events we have seen on healthcare in the last couple of months.
“The Congressman boasted to the radio interviewer about how many meetings he is having—‘mini town hall meetings’ he called them. Indeed, he probably is having a large number of small meetings but they are not being advertised publicly in advance so people who disagree with him know when and where to show up. One cannot blame frustrated constituents if they conclude Congressman Bright is skulking around getting the word of his ‘mini town hall meetings’ out selectively to groups he knows won’t give him a hard time.
“Then, Mr. Bright showed his true colors at the 2:35-minute mark in the interview when he called the people protesting against ObamaCare (H.R. 3200 specifically) ‘extremists who want to scare folks’—people who don’t really care about this country or Alabama but are only interested in getting their faces on TV. Bright goes on to instruct his constituents ‘they need to settle down and talk to average folks.’
“After listening to the interview, I managed to find this video of the senior citizens he calls ‘extremists’ in action, behaving badly and making unreasonable demands according to the Congressman. You be the judge who is behaving badly and making unreasonable demands; the people or the Congressman?
“In the radio interview when confronted with the specific question about how he would vote on healthcare reform, Congress Bright ranted on about voting against ‘those five drastic and horrible bills up in Congress’ but he never specified which bills he was talking about. But more importantly, he failed to address the specific questions people want to ask him directly, which he manages to continue dodging by refusing to meet with the people who have the questions.
“First, will the Congressman vote against a federal mandate requiring employers to provide healthcare coverage to their employees? Will he vote against a federal mandate requiring individuals to purchase healthcare coverage or pay a fine?
“Second, will the Congressman vote against a public option, government-run insurance plan? Will he vote against replacing a public option with healthcare cooperatives?
“Third, will the Congressman acknowledge that it is impossible to arrive at a sufficiently large national consensus at this time to enact meaningful healthcare reform without ramming it down the throats of many Americans? Will he urge the White House and the House Leadership to shelve the healthcare debate until after the midterm elections?
“These are the pertinent questions the Congressman has an obligation to answer in a straightforward manner in plain English that everyone can understand. Until he does, as long as he continues to hide from his constituents and fuzz up his real position on these specific questions, the people of the Second District of Alabama may fairly conclude he is just another pantywaist Congressman who is afraid of his own constituents.
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