Notes from the Kuhl town hall: coming through in waves
Just got back from the Kuhl town hall meeting in Mendon (I took a detour to the Public Market first, which is why this took so long). I have a simple message for everyone who attends these meetings:
You’re getting through to Randy Kuhl.
The questions today for the most part were very respectful: questioners treated Kuhl like a potential ally rather than as the enemy. Kuhl’s responses were pretty telling:
- * Kuhl bristled noticeably when one questioner said to him “I know it’s hard for you to oppose the president because you’re a Republican”. Kuhl responded with an angry sounding speech about how he would never be intimidated by a Republican party chairman or by the president or by Karl Rove. The audience (wisely) applauded this (although I don’t think anyone there believed him).
- * Kuhl bragged about having voted with the Democrats on 4 of the 6 major “First One Hundred Hours” bills.
- * Kuhl compared invading Iraq to stepping on a landmine. His point was “you don’t just step off it”, but there’s an implicit admission that the invasion was a mistake when one uses this analogy.
- * Kuhl talked about “people’s neighbors coming home in body bags” — a stark description of the war that contrasts sharply with the usual Bush line “no one likes to see people getting blown up on their t.v. screens” (Bush always talks about the war as if it only took place on television).
Do I think that much of this was anything more than lip service from Kuhl? No. But to paraphrase Gandhi: first they laugh at you, then they mock you, then they adopt your talking points, then they vote the way you want them to.
“Stepping on a landmine” is cute spin, but a more accurate image is stepping onto a volcano that’s been dormant, and dynamiting the top of it. Then being surprised at the lava shooting out.
Another accurate image I heard was Iraq as a collapsing burning building. How many times you gonna send those brave fire fighters back in there?