Congresswoman Kristi Noemeetings is evidently taking her cues from Congressman Paul Ryan from Wisconsin. The man who proposed the Medicare-destroying budget Kristi loves is holding no public town hall meetings during the August recess.
Worse, according to Politico, Ryan and several GOP colleagues have adopted a new strategy to simultaneously buffer them from criticism and fill their campaign coffers: they are charging people to ask questions. Rep. Ryan attended a Rotary Club meeting where citizens had to pay $15 get a chance to ask him a question. Rep. Ben Quayle of Arizona is attending a carefully managed luncheon at a Phoenix law office where attendees will pay $35 for the privilege of addressing His Highness. Minnesota's Rep. Chip Cravaack let the National Federation of Independent Businesses charge citizens $10 to get time to talk with their Congressman.
Rep. Kristi Noem's behavior is part of a national pattern. House Republicans apparently decided that answering questions from the public is just too hard. They know their approach of demanding sacrifice from everyone but the rich is unpopular even among Republican voters. Noem and her colleagues thus know that to hold onto their jobs, they must hold the general public at bay, control the message and the image, and pray for some distraction while they eat $500 pancakes.
I see Senator Johnson will be at the communist takeover of Howard, South Dakota.
In case you missed it: :-D
@coralhei RT? Rep. Noem: "Remember to stop by the Pierre Ramkota Amphitheatre 2 @ 10:30am-12pm tmrw for the flooding roundtable."
@coralhei RT: "If you can't make it to the roundtable, you can follow the discussion online w/ @capitaljournal http://t.co/TaAE4w7 "
Regarding the Politico story which cited Raymond Cravaack’s (R-MN-08) luncheon appearance, I am concerned that poor journalism could be at fault.
The Politico story cites a Duluth newspaper story concerning a constituent protest event over Mr. Cravaack failing to hold a public town hall event in that city.
The story also cited luncheon sponsored by a business group which advertized Mr. Cravaack as the luncheon speaker and the lunch would cost $10.
The impression is that Mr. Cravaack is charging $10 ... but there is not a confirmation from the Congressman’s office or the sponsor ... IMO, this is poor journalism.
The same group had a similar luncheon earlier this year in Rochester Minnesota and invited two members of the Minnesota legislature ... both Republicans ... the lunch fee was $10.
Thus the question, is this standard practice for the business group when holding luncheons ... strictly a cost recovery effort so that all statewide members do not pay for events but only those that attend. If Mr. Cravaack is getting the $10 for speaking then it should be listed as an honorarium and disclosed on his Personal Financial Disclosure form (due every May 15th ... except Mr. Cravaack has not his yet having received two extensions, but that’s another story.)
If you visit the MNPoliticalRoundtable, you will see numerous stories on Mr. Cravaack’s failings ... but in this instance, I need more facts before judging.
Gosh, if you think about it, the Duluth protesters were “protesting paying taxes†and yet unable to meet with their “representative†... does that story sound familiar ?
I acknowledge and appreciate Minnesota Central's thoughtful and cautious approach to the Cravaack side of the story. He appears not to be one of the major dodgers here. However, I wonder: if I wanted to brown-bag it, would the NFIB have still let me in to question the Congressman?
Hi CAHEIDELBERGER,
Thanks for reading my comment.
IMO, the NFIB event is being held at Grandma's Restuarant in Duluth and the restuarant may frown on people bringing their own meals. That said, could you attend and just listen ... well... that's a fair question ... but it is a NFIB-Members Event, so I suspect that you would have to be a member ... and that was not stated in the Politico article.
BTW ... I have just posted on the MN Political Roundtable a commentary on three protest events which citizens tried to get Mr. Cravaack's attention http://mnpoliticalroundtable.com/2011/08/20/mn-08-cravaack-excites-crowds-of-protesters/
You may notice that the "green fees" are a little higher to play with Mr. Cravaack and Mr. Boehner ... but then again they are both graduates of Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller High School ... a private, all-male school ... thus they probably feel quite at ease at a Country Club .... so how was the Boehner-Noem event ?
$10K to golf with the boys? That's nuts! For that price, I could have gotten 20 pictures and handshakes with Noem and Boehner!
The Noem-Boehner event brought in maybe a hundred donors, but Noem allowed no press. Her spokesman released on terse statement; otherwise, the press was all negative, as the Dems did a prety good job of capturing the message, staging a free public pancake feed at a park across the street and waving signs at Noem as she drove by to the country club. Noem failed to take advantage of having the Speaker in town to crank out some public photo ops of her own -- talk about amateur hour!
THANKS for the Golfing Update ... sounds like the SoDakatoDems did it right.
BTW : Minnesota Public Radio is now reporting that "The NFIB is charging for the event. Cravaack's spokesman, Michael Bars, won't say whether Cravaack will insist that the event be open to the public."
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Question : Is it a foregone conclusion amongst South Dakatoans that John Thune will be the VP nominee ? And does that make Noem his likely replacement ?
It would seem that he would be the ideal candidate for either Romney or Perry ... they need someone that the TEA Party will embrace and yet not scare away independent voters.