Senator Evan Bayh...Gather Huckster? You Decide

awesome -- we need to make sure that we hold our congress people to their word. When they say they are going to do something-then do it-congrats!!!

Thanks Randy...I agree completely. Tired here of business as usual, tired of these politicians only giving real answers to Big Business, the rich and the elite. It is a government for and BY THE PEOPLE, and he came to us, not the other way around. He posted here, and now owes us the basic decency of answering our questions openly and honestly, rather than trying to duck out.

porgie, i think you are being pretty snarky about all this. if you read senator bayh's thread, you see that ryan alexander is trying to respond to the questions. you'd see that senator bayh is making public statements answering some of the questions.

and he's invited you to gathermail him.

you know, he might turn out to be your party's nominee. at this rate, you won't get a ticket to the inauguration.

Porgie, he did address two issues in the thread. Or, at least, someone did. I also wrote a brief article on this earlier tonight. Personally, I'm real skeptical about this whole development. I didn't see the email announcing Mr. Bayh's appearance or next weeks appearance by Newt Gingrich. I thought he just posted an article like anyone else. Silly me. The whole thing smells of political machinery orchestrating "public" events. Since I haven't seen anything from Mr. Bayh that I wasn't expecting to hear from a professional politician, and probably the same from Gingrich, I'm going to write it off as campaign shennanigans and ignore it. When I get thirsty for kool-aid, I'll go in the kitchen and make some.

Trouble...at the time I challenged Senator Bayh, the only thing that was up was his "if you do not see your questions answered here note, write me privately" diatribe. We all know that is not how this medium works. We all operate out in the open, and let the chips fall where they may. We express ourselves honestly, we disagree, we hold opposing views, and things get WILD at times, but it is done openly, and sometimes we actually find common ground where everyone can agree.

IF Bayd wants to use this medium, I am all for it...but, he does not get to pick and choose which questions he WANTS to answers, does not get a free ticket because of his political position as a Senator. He put up a political fluff piece, something I would expect to hear at a gathering of his BELIEVERS, and we responded with HARD QUESTIONS in a PUBLIC FORUM. He wants to play here, but by HIS RULES, and I for one am going to HOLD HIS FEET to the proverbial fire. until he answer ALL THE QUESTIONS posed openly and honestly, and not with some political double speak...IE, just what is he and the Senate going to do about illegals....I don't want to hear babble, I want concrete real answers. If he wants to give them Amnesty wrapped in some gift wrapped illusion labeled earned citizenship, I want to know that.

Rex...first, he did answer two questions...SORT OF.

1. Ear Marks...yes, these need to be addressed, but this sad situation is NOT on the top of most of our lists of important issues in Washington right now. How about the first question he answers be in the WAR IN IRAQ, the almost 3,000 DEAD AMERICANS, and the fact that Bush is digging in his heels and continuing his wrong for America "Stay The Course" failed policy in Iraq. Bush's mutt Senator McCain actually calling for more troops, echoing Bush's call for one more BIG PUSH with more troops and more armaments. We voted for CHANGE, and a big part of that change is...What are the Democrats going to do to castrate Bush's "Stay The Course" in Iraq? Pelosi has already taken the possibility of IMPEACHMENT off the table, so what is left? Unfunding the war is political suicide and unfair to our troops. No, instead of answering a real question, he jumps on an easy one to appease the crowd.

2. Immigration....he danced around and said (without saying it) that he embraces the BIG BUSINESS/National Chamber of Commerce CHEAP WAGES AMNESTY PLAN that the Senate passed while under Republican Control.

porgie, look at his congressional actions.
http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=IN&VIPID=900

you get more bees with honey.
really, you sound rude and demanding. and i'm trying to tell you this in a nice way.

people in congress are BUSY. they can't get back to you right away. they don't log in to gather when they have a spare moment.

if i were you, i'd try to persuade.

isn't that amnesty plan the plan that bush proposed?

i don't know if his vote is right for indiana, but it's not right for arizona. and if he wants a national platform, i think he'd better think about all the people who lost jobs because of outsourcing and downsizing and cheap labor. if the republicans go tough on border control and illegal immigrants, an awful lot of people are going to be voting republican if bayh gets the nomination.

Trouble...

With all due respect. Americans have been trying to BE NICE for years. The problem with illegal aliens did not POP up yesterday, the government did not betray us overnight. All the promises being made now to the middle class are the SAME PROMISES made by Reagan before the 1986 AMNESTY. We have written our letters, and 99 percent of the time we get back pre packaged auto responses that are signed by our elected officials SIGNATURE MACHINE, and mailed out by a low line staffer. Meanwhile, BIG BUSINESS the rich and the elite are given a much better and special access to these elected officials. If a big business owner calls up his elected official and requests a personal meeting IT HAPPENS....curious here, have you ever tried to get a FACE TO FACE with one of your elected officials, even if you are willing to travel to Washington to make it happen?

Being nice has seen many small business men lose business share to illegals, or to companies that hire illegals. Many LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS have lost their jobs in the construction trade because companies are HIRING ILLEGALS...I could go on, but you get the picture.

Read the Senators no answer answers in the thread....he's playing the game, not having STRAIGHT DIALOGUE with us.

Ever read the transcripts of Senate Sub Committee hearings...normal middle class citizens DO NOT GET TO TESTIFY, but instead vested interest people associated with BIG BUSINESS instead are invited in to speak to the issues. Did you want who testified at the Dog and Pony Senate hearings on ILLEGAL ALIENS? They did not put real Americans on the witness stand, did not let our voices be heard!

I went to some of the various debates held in this past election cycle...it was obvious being in the audience that the questions from the audience were screened, that chosen SPECIAL PEOPLE were carefully picked before hand to offer up a question....sorry, tired of most of us not being heard.

porgie, do you remember when you first got on gather? wasn't there a bit of a learning curve? have you counted the comments on his thread? it's a lot. you are gonna have to give them time and space. they aren't on gather as much as you might be, or as much as i might be. this happens to be a very busy time for the politicians because they have to set up the next congress. things gotta be discussed. the committee assignments, for one thing. and because evan has been a senator for a while, he is probably in the thick of stuff.

they are also orienting the newly-elected people.

that's what they are doing this week.

he's agreed to log in. he joined a couple of groups. he put a couple of speeches out. he's answered a couple of people.

don't overwhelm him or he'll just have his aide log in.

maybe what we should do is organize this for him. maybe summarize an issue and ask him to reply to that. then we could all read and comment.

i don't want to just know his positions. i want to be able to talk with him about his positions.

what do you think?

Trouble....do you know what has been going on this week in Washington? For starters, two parties held at the Library Of Congress, another love in was held at a local watering hole for the Freshman to meet and greet their counter parts. Oh, we had a FORMAL AFFAIR for the politicians, coupled with a counterpart Spouses affair. Want me to go on?

Then, we have all these elected officials running around to MSNBC, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN and other media outlets where they get out their parties TALKING POINTS as they try to shape the playing field for the January start up of the Democratically controlled House and Senate.

Curious here Trouble...have you ever gone to the Republican Party website and looked at how many FUND RAISING EVENTS they have scheduled in Washington, DC on a DAILY BASIS? Hell, any day you want to take a ride to Washington, you can find a early morning fund raising event going on, where for around $500 in donation you can have a cup of coffee and a donut with your elected official. Donuts not your thing? No problem, they have golf outings for $2000, evening drinking fests for as little as $1,000, or Brown Bag Lunch affairs out on the walk for a bargain price of $250! Want to be a high roller, and REALLY HAVE SOME ACCESS? Contact the FEC and start up a PAC! The more money your PAC has in its own WAR CHEST, the more access you can have to ANY ONE YOU WANT TO HAVE ACCESS TO! A $10,000 check speaks VOLUMES. If any of us think things are different in the Democratic Party, we are fooling ourselves.

MONEY dictates how much time an elected official gives you, and it is that simple.

trbl, I did not get an email about Sen. Evan Bayh or Newt Gingrich either. I would like to be in on it when Newt speaks. As far as I can tell, he has always given a straight, honest answer to any question posed to him.

I think you have provided a solution to a very obvious problem. Have people submit their questions and someone write them up so they are in one, two, or three segments, (depending on size). If the Senator or anyone else is too busy to answer the question when they appear on a forum, they are going to be too busy to answer an email. (IMO) :-)

June....I've seen how that compilation gets diluted and cleaned up...go to a public debate, or watch the various news shows, and the questions are nice, neat tidy politically correct questions that provide a platform on which ppliticians can dance around the proverbial mulberry bush without giving real answers...IE, immigration. No one wants to CHALLENGE the platitudes and double speak of the politicians, no one wants to force them to give us STRAIGHT UP HONEST TALK. Pathway to citizenship is AMNESTY, but no one wants to FORCE the politicians to admit this. Back ground checks sound good, but how many Americans know enough about the Senate's PASSED McCain/Kennedy AMNESTY BILL to know that every illegal alien would have excused any crimes associated with their being here illegally, and have in addition three misdemeanors and a felony before they would be denied said pathway to citizenship.

yeah, june. i think we should submit a list of topics, the senator can give his position and we can comment on the thread.

i think we could do this better if evan bayh had his own group and posted his answer to different groups as well.

that way latecomers too could look at his position papers on gather.

this would work if we give him a list of issues.

i think immigration and illegal aliens and border security could be one issue. and because i didn't see obvious answers to it, maybe it should be the first one.

other topics?

I was in a chat room with Sylvia Brown. People were allowed one question. They were not allowed to say thank you and all that smoke blowing up the A&& that goes on in a lot of chat rooms. They were to have the question typed in and ready to ask when it came their turn. These rules might seem harsh, but more people got to ask questions and get answers than the usual "chat room chatter".

I am afraid with all the bickering over politics, there are going to be a few who hog the whole thing. I think a lot of this goes on when Tom holds his weekly and unannounced forums, people making rude comments but not asking a question or offering a suggestion.

Porgie, the questions submitted by Gather members would be selected by other Gather members, much like the November election was done. They could form a group where people could go in and submit questions and then the selection could be made from those submitted. The committee would be comprised of a few members from both parties. The committee could even be voted on by Gather Members, and the final selection of questions posted leaving room for suggestion.

Porgie - thumbs up for holding both dems and repubs feet to the fire. You are absolutely correct when you say that the sems are no different than the repubs AND that is where this whole political mess falls apart. It is no longer by the people, of the people and for the people. It is by the pol, of the pol and for the pol. Anything that benefits the people is an accident or an afterthought.

Don't suppose you can turn this into a video? The questions v. the canned answers etc, like that one you did on Voting your heart. I'm sure in a few weeks you will have enogh material to embarrass both parties.

PS - I am hurt. I didn't get the email either. Guess the get nots are not as special as the gets.

Oops - I meant the dems not the sems although they are all the sem.

Nanci:

I spent about 20 minutes dumping stuff into files from his PAC site and blog, as well as making a copy of the entire thread here on Gather. If I do not see some SERIOUS substance tomorrow, you CAN COUNT on a serious You Tube Video going on....further, lucky for me, unlucky for him, I spent a LOT of my early life in Indiana, having attended Thomas Jefferson Grade School, and with my father having owned a business just down the street from the home of the Jeffersonville Red Devils.

I have a LOT of old friends in Indiana that I can tap into if needs be in helping to start a WAVE of questioning.

i got this email 11/16 from gather

The 2006 midterm elections inspired exceptional dialogue and participation from tens of thousands of Gather members. And the conversation is just beginning...

To further build on the tremendous interest in politics on Gather and the host of political issues coming out of the election, election2006.gather.com has been renamed Politics on Gather, located at politics.gather.com. The group will continue to have all of the same great discussion and debate. But its new, broader scope will address how the changing face of politics affects you and our nation each day.

To kick things off, this morning U.S. Senator Evan Bayh from Indiana published an exclusive article on Gather and is interacting with group members. Please be sure to share your thoughts with the Senator over the next few days. And next Tuesday, November 21, look for our exclusive interview with Newt Gingrich, who'll be responding to your comments in the coming weeks.

Then on an ongoing basis, keep coming back to the Politics on Gather group for:

Discussions around developing news
Hot topics like the Iraq timetable, minimum wage laws & immigration reform
Weekly discussions with top politicians
Debates about new 2008 Presidential candidates
Content on timely, relevant issues from nine local Gather bloggers and reporters
Politics on Gather will evolve as quickly and as often as the political scene. So to keep you up-to-date, every Monday beginning November 27, you'll receive an email highlighting the top events of the week.

Learn more about the group here. When you stay involved, your voice will continue to be heard.

Best,
The Gather Team
gather.com

Ah Porgie, I can see myself liking you - even with your politics. Make sure you post the link to your video.

Porgie,
The reason I raised the two issues in my comment was because they are a subject that should not fall on partisan ears. The Iraq issue and others you raised are not matters that are going to be solved very quickly. The "earmark" and "rider" problems were raised because I think resolution of these problems could be very easy and demonstrate to the constituency that politicians, across the board, are taking steps to respond.