Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Can John Kline Risk Holding Another Town Hall Meeting?

The House adjourned for its August recess early Sunday, bringing to an end a week of bitter partisanship for Congressman John Kline, controversial vote decisions and legislative victories for Democrats on sweeping reforms on energy and national security measures

Since the House will be out of session until September, will John Kline be holding another public town-hall meeting as promised? If you recall, it took intense public lobbying by local constituents to force Kline into his first real town hall meeting earlier this year. Now inquiring mind want to know, when will John Kline have another?

Two meetings a year (while breaking his own record!) is extremely poor when compared to the rest of Minnesota's Congressional representatives who have already heald numerous face-to-face townn hall meetings this year alone! Wouldn't you think as a public official, he would see this a part of his obligation to the voters in CD2? Wonder what John Kline is so afraid of that he won't hold public town meetings?

Kline likes to play games and label his tele-calls as town meetings(03/09/07
Kline holds his first town hall of 2007), but they are not. First, they lack the genuine face-to-face encounters offered by public townhall meetings. Secondly, most participants find the format too controlling and are unable to know for sure if others are who they say they represent or just 'friendly partisan plants' to control the dialog and questioning. And lastly, they don't offer the same informal setting to network and meet other voters with similiar views and goals.

Once more - Dump John Kline readers want to know: Will Congressman John Kline be holding an open public town hall meeting while the House is in recess for August?

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