GOP Eager To Create ‘Town Hall, The Sequel’

As the saying goes, when something works, why fix it? It’s a business practice that has kept Hollywood afloat for years: when you have a hit on your hands, common sense dictates that you merely continue to produce newer versions of the same story till you’ve sucked every last drop of profit and/or meaning out of it. Looks like the GOP may be attempting something similar with regards to this summer’s town halls, which managed to hijack the health care debate for most of August: They want to bring them back. Per Politico:

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander said Republicans are “quietly” planning some 50 in-person and telephone town hall gatherings over the next three weeks to drum up opposition to Democratic health care bills. Republicans believe this effort will pick up new urgency once Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) releases his long-awaited bill — possibly next week. There may be more town hall events in December, but they would become harder to schedule if the Senate stays in session six days a week to try to finish the bill by year’s end.

If this is really the plan, I suspect the GOP may run into a number of problems, namely it is not August. The dog days of summer are renowned for allowing some of the more extreme news stories in the nation to take hold. Also it happens to be the month Congressmen go home to their districts. Now that the country is about to enter high holiday season it is doubtful that a) people will have the time to attend town halls and b) people will have the time to watch endless coverage of people who do have the time to attend the town halls. The more likely scenario is that we will see more of the sort of organized rallies that have brought us the 9/12 protests and the Superbowl for Freedom. The most likeliest scenario, to my mind, is that Sarah Palin’s upcoming book tour will quickly evolve into a combination of all three.

Of course, rowdy town hall meetings may be the least of President Obama’s concerns going forward. On her show last night (video below), Rachel Maddow pointed out that the bill is facing professionally organized opposition from the Right, and on the Left a “sudden spasm of intense debate over abortion on Capitol Hill.” In short: town hall revival or not, we can expect a cacophony of protests from all sides between now and Christmas. So much so, I wonder whether the administration won’t be looking back at August with some nostalgia.

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