Democrat Dirty Tricks? You Decide.
August 12, 2009
The Democratic National Committee was ’scheduling’ meetings between constituents who support the House health care plan and Republican Congressmen. I am not kidding.
The DNC’s Organizing for America (OFA) set up a website (you need to be logged in) that allows constituents to ’schedule’ meetings with Republicans. The OFA changed the word ‘meeting’ to ‘visit’ and suggested they were just helping Republicans by ensuring that they didn’t have too many visitors at any single time. Of course the constituents thought they had a meeting with their Congressmen – they were pissed when they learned that the DNC had misled them. Hopefully they weren’t pissed at their Congressmen too.
The DNC suggests it is all a big mistake:
“DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse dismissed those charges, noting that OFA had only encouraged constituents to “visit” offices and made clear in their materials that a meeting with Members or staff was not guaranteed. “We asked people to pick a time to drop by and drop off a flier in support of health insurance reform,” Woodhouse said. “We asked them to pick a time so that a bunch of people wouldn’t show up all at once.”
According to a Roll Call article,
Michelle Ozanus, communications director for Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), cited an incident Monday when a constituent walked into Neugebauer’s office in Big Spring, Texas, to check in for a 10 a.m. meeting and was told by the district staff that no record of the appointment existed.
“We have a large district; people come from all over,” Ozanus said. “To have them come all this way and be confused is frustrating.”
The constituent said the meeting had been scheduled through OFA and that she had received a confirmation e-mail that said the appointment had been set.
Update: Dianne Feinstein (Democratic Senator from California) has ALSO complained to the White House that the OFA is scheduling meetings at her office. She is taking heat from her constituents who thought they had an appointment with her. Ouch. Dianne is the first Democrat to complain about the program that has largely targeted Republicans.
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Dirty political tactics will only impress those at the helm.
Comment by debra heinsohn — August 12, 2009 @ 8:25 pm