By Paul Blumenthal on 05/22/08
It sounds silly, but it is, in fact, true. In this month of May, fifteen years ago, Ted Kennedy became the first Senator to communicate with constituents over the Internet. Back in 1993, this was no small feat. At the time there were no congressional offices connected to the Internet. (The House launched a pilot program on June 2, 1993, hooking up seven members to an Internet network.) One dedicated staffer and the technology hubs of MIT and other top-level educational institutions made Kennedy into the first digital Senator. Here’s the story (which you can read about in more detail Chris Casey’s book, The Hill on the Net):
Outside Agitators at Townhall Meetings
For weeks now there has been concern that outside agitators have been attending townhall meetings, not to obtain information, but to disrupt and bully the individuals holding the meetings. Other attendees who might want to learn more about healthcare proposals or various other plans being considered for legislation are also bullied and talked over top of and drowned out.
Many folks have argued that this is not happening or have attempted to justify the conduct of various people who have been been captured on film by the media. Randall Terry is a professional outside agitator who showed up at Congressman Jim Moran’s town hall meeting last night.
Congressman Moran had a difficult time even talking with the crowd. He insisted that those from the 8th Congressional district be let in first. That seems fair enough. About 3000 people got inside the meeting hall in Reston. He had invited former DNC chair Howard Dean to his meeting as a special guest. It is doubtful that he got a word in edgewise either.
Chief outside aggitator dissident was Randall Terry making a horse’s rear end out of himself as usual. This guy shows up everywhere to shoot off his big mouth and to make a fool of himself. He has been at the Terry Schivo nursing home, he followed President Obama to Notre Dame, and now he wants to stalk Jim Moran it seems. His main theme still seems to be abortion but I think he chose the wrong venue for protest.
According to politico.com:
[W]hen Dean took the stage, he was met by a deafening din of boos and catcalls, which pushed Moran over the edge.
“I’m sorry but I can’t even hear the governor and I’m sitting next to him. There are hundreds of people in this gymnasium who can’t hear him because of a handful of people,” Moran said. “These folks are not from the 8th District, they don’t really belong here, and I’m going to ask them to leave.”
Protestor Randall Terry, the founder of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who had warned local media he planned to make a ruckus, particularly infuriated the congressman with his screaming accusations that Dean was a “baby killer.”
Moran offered Terry five minutes of floor time to ask a question in exchange for quiet, but Terry refused and was muscled out of the meeting, as the crowd chanted, “Kick him out.”
Here is a brief video of the crowd behavior last night.
Finally Congressman Moran was able to hold a 45 minute session where he and Howard Dean tried to brief the crowd:
He also sought to explain what he called “myths” about the bill, including the rumor that the bill would fund death panels encouraging ailing elderly patients to consider assisted suicide.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Moran said.
“Liar, liar, liar,” a crowd member screamed.
This is not civilized behavior. How does anyone expect to find out about anything? How many would be comfortable attending a meeting with some of these thugs like Randall Terry?
firedoglake and notlarrysabato both have video of the Moran Townhall meeting.
