Charles Krauthammer brought up a point yesterday which I think may be half right on. He is usually all right on, but he is just as shielded from the turmoil out in the hustings as are most members of Congress.
    Charles suggested we (you) park loud derisive speech, boos, catcalls etc at the door. His reason is bad manners, and our behavior gives the Left ammunition to link "our kind" with Code Pink, the Daily Kos crowd and other radical groups.
    I can't abide bad manners either, but with Congress my idea of bad manners is deciding whether to pick up a pipe wrench or a rock if I run into a member in a dark alley. Sorry, Charles that fuse has been lit.
    Still, on the point of strategy and battlefield tactics, I think Mr Krauthammer may have a point. He was saying "we" are losing points with independents and moderate Democrats, I assume, since most rock hard constitutionalists approve of any tactic that will bring cameras and public notice to these events. (I think end of recess polls will have shown us to gain, not lose adherents.) The day has long since passed that we care about bringing any Lefties over to our side.  He also faulted the GOP for not reigning us in, but who, I can just about swear, has no fingerprints whatsoever on this grass roots movement. The GOP still wants our votes, even expects them, but cannot afford to come out to either support us, or decry us. (That does seem to be their most favored position, astraddle right and wrong....but that is also their problem, not ours.)
    But if you believe that our grass roots movement(s) is getting a public bloody nose by crossing a line many would-be supporters think just too much to swallow, then there is another way.
    What Charles misses is that these town hall's have been orchestrated events for some time. Almsot nothing is supposed to go on that is spontaneous. The Dem's have already cancelled the format in many places, and come up with alternates, one-on-one's, soap box deliveries in supermarkets, etc where it's hard to hear, voices don't carry so well, and especially on health care, where old folks can't find a place to sit down. They also have a 24/7 manned hotline for Q&A's on the bill, since none of them knows what it (they) says.
    Their mission in these public events is to be able to run them like Obama does a press conference, i.e., you ask one question, they answer with a generality, never a specific, then go on to the next question so you cannot get a follow up or clarification. Not "what if", or "but, but you said last year", or "it says on page 492".
    What you can do to change the dynamic, without raising a ruckus: Don't rely on cell phones, or local media to make your record. Make your own. Bring cameras, sound, ever redundancy you can think of. Draw up a list of questions to be asked (or that need to be answered) beforehand, with specifics, that can be passed around to members and well as interested parties...before and after the event. Record every answer (actually non-answer) as well as any threat from the hooligans standing over near the exits.
    After the event, publish these via the internet. Start using the internet as a weapon, the same way the Left does. There is the event, and tghe reported event. Be the master of the reported event, for the Dem's than can only play defense. They don't have to do that as long as the headline is your onduct instead of your substance.
    I like this because there is the element of stealth involved, they won;t see you coming in Nov 2010. We watch these things and saw the swell in 2006 and 2008, and was stunned, STUNNED at how little the GOP saw coming. See what I mean. They are shielded by their onw separate reality.
    We believe most members of Congress simply don't understand the rising tide out here, in part because it is not orchestrated by the GOP, insurance companies or conservative groups. (There may be some, by the way, and I approve.) To the Dem's this summer recess is all about positive press exposure, especially to provide cover for the 50-80-120 members who are on the edge of losing their jobs next Fall. We've already annouced that the healthcare bill is everything to the leadership in that once they get their vote on that, members voting "aye" will have handcuffed themselves to the brass rail of the Titanic, and will have no choice but to go along later on. Once it is passed, and three years before it is to go into effcet, the health care bill will "allow" Congress and the various departments to literaly take over American society by fiat. It is the launching pad for everything else we fear from government. We will be serfs once more.
    I believe, and continue to look for reasons to change my mind, that if these packages of legislation (heathcare and cap and trade) are passed this year, the left wing of the democrat party really don't care what might happen in the 2010 election. I believe that is their game plan, even if a faulty one. I'd just hate to have to wait til Nov 2010 to see what cards they have up their sleeve then that both Rush Limbaugh misjudged and Charles Krauthammer missed beacuse of his sense of fair play.
   The time is now. This fall, 2009.
VB