Whether It's Joe Biden or Dick Cheney, I Don't Care

HARBESON: In this case, time doesn’t pay

By DEBBIE HARBESON Local Columnist

> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Jeffersonville’s Mayor Tom Galligan and City Council President Nathan Samuel sure get excited when vice presidents come to visit. At least that’s the impression I got after reading a recent letter to the editor they wrote.

What I don’t understand is why they think others should feel the same.

Not everyone nearly tinkles their pants in excitement just because a “high-profile” federal politician comes to town. Particularly when the purpose of their visit is to raise funds at private election campaign fundraisers.

We’ve known since Vice President Cheney came to town to campaign for Mike Sodrel that such visits cost the city money, and when the campaigns do not reimburse the city for the extra costs, it has the effect of forcing taxpayers to donate to candidates whether they support them or not.

And what do the taxpayers get for these campaign donations? Not a photo opportunity. Not a dinner. Not even a few bread crumbs. Some of them do get jam though, but only the traffic kind.

However, for Joe Biden’s recent visit, Hill’s’ campaign staff apparently offered to pay any extra costs the city incurred as a result of the vice president’s attendance at this private fundraising event. They understood these costs were directly caused by their event and were willing to pay for the services.

I love it when people are willing to take responsibility and pay for what they use.

But Galligan and Samuel apparently don’t understand the concept at all because they refused to take payment for those costs. This would be fine if the two of them paid for it out of their personal funds, but that’s not what they’re doing. They want the taxpayers to pay for it.

Think about it. Bills could have been paid by the people who directly benefited from the service, people perfectly willing to pay for the services they used. Yet these politicians turned down the money.

Surely they can understand the basic idea of paying for what one uses, right? So why would they not let someone do that?

According to the letter they wrote attempting to explain their actions, they think these visits are special just because they are “high-ranking members of the federal government.” They think local residents should feel proud and consider it a grand honor to pay extra when these politicians come to town. They say people should welcome the leaders of our great nation.

But these guys only come here because it serves their specific political purposes.

Both visits had a very narrow intent. It had little to do with the people who actually live here, and everything to do with maintaining their power and control at the federal level. Instead of feeling flattered, locals should feel used.

Fortunately, no matter what these two city politicians say, none of us have to get on our knees and blindly worship political leaders anymore. We threw that idea away centuries ago.

Galligan and Samuel also said that if the city did not provide protection, it would be sending a signal to leaders in Washington that they are unwelcome. Who said not to provide the service? Just accept the payment. Why is this so hard for these politicians to comprehend?

If they are truly concerned about sending the wrong signals they would do well to think of their own constituents. After all, what sort of signal do their actions send to a local small businessperson who sat in the event’s traffic, losing money because he’s unable to bill for the time? The very least these “generous” politicians can do is not make this taxpayer pay even more, by not accepting the voluntary payment for services rendered.

Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson never tinkles her pants in excitement when federal politicians come to town. She’s been known to do that when they leave though.

Baron Hill, David Allen Coe and Richard Nixon

Column notes: I already posted a short blog item about this video where Baron Hill got caught in a "compromising position on youtube," but I decided to also write a column on the topic. I love it when I can make such interesting connections between seemingly unrelated people.

HARBESON: Perfect YouTube video stars Rep. Baron Hill

I love YouTube.com. On this Internet Web site, anyone can post videos, so I can find almost anything I want. Videos range from the amateurish to the professional, ridiculous to thoughtful, intelligent to downright stupid. I can find quality videos to learn something new or I can just watch some silly mindless entertainment.

For a while now, I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect YouTube video. If that extra verse in David Allen Coe’s famous song that includes mama, prison, getting drunk, trucks and trains could define the perfect country-western song, then there has to be something similar for YouTube videos.

I was confident one would show up eventually that would succinctly and effectively define the medium. Well, I finally found it and it stars our very own congressional representative, Baron Hill.

During one of his recent town hall meetings, a student asked Hill why she couldn’t record the event. Hill explained that he refuses to allow videotaping because of the chance that excerpts could be put up on YouTube in a compromising position.

Of course, it’s now on that Web site and I challenge anyone to find a more perfect YouTube video, at least in the political realm.

He knew it was going to be difficult to control his message and tried to do it on his own terms by attempting to ban average citizens from recording the event. He even digs a deeper hole in the video excerpt when he says that it was his town hall meeting and constituents aren’t going to tell him how to run his office.

So much for the humble public servant aspect of being a representative I guess. Rarely do we see so much truth packed into about 70 seconds.

It also proves that Baron Hill’s instincts were right. The poor guy tried his best to avoid town hall meetings this year because he knew it wouldn’t end up benefiting him. But constituents can be so darn annoying and demanding so he gambled that he’d be better off by scheduling a couple than not having any.

He learned the hard way, now that technology has given the average citizen way more power, that what happens in town hall meetings does not stay in town hall meetings. He probably would have been better off hiding out in Las Vegas for a couple of months.

I wonder if it would console him to realize he now has a lot in common with Richard Nixon, who also knew his share of woes as technology passed him by. First, it was the humiliation of comparisons over his appearance to Kennedy’s during the 1960 presidential debates. Then when he finally made it to the Oval Office, he thought recording technology would be his friend, but alas, Nixon could never erase all the mistakes he made.

I’m sure many of you have made a call recently and been informed it could be recorded “for quality assurance purposes.” This is a well known method of evaluating employee competency that does not disrupt the business interactions taking place.

So doesn’t it make perfect sense that a constituent who wants to evaluate his congressman might want to do the same thing and record interactions for quality assurance purposes?

You would think a politician like Hill, one who claims to serve his constituents, would be applauding innovations like YouTube. But what we see instead is that Hill automatically assumes that if someone simply attends a meeting and presses a record button, they’ll gather plenty of material to make him look bad. Of course, that’s the most interesting aspect of this entire situation.

Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson is often in the mood for something mindless but sometimes has a hard time choosing between YouTube dancing babies and political speeches.

Baron Hill Talks To The Serfs

Wow, Baron Hill sounds like a dictator rather than a representative in this little excerpt from a recent town hall meeting.



I don't know why I'm surprised to see this though. After all, I've really seen Hill in action and described the experience in a recent column posted below written prior to Hill scheduling any town hall meetings.

I really, really wish we had videotaped that visit to our booth that I describe below. Maybe he wouldn't even be around to dictate how others should live their lives.

HARBESON: A shout-out to Baron Hill

By now, many of you have probably heard about the town hall meetings being held by members of Congress during this summer recess. Apparently, lots of angry constituents are turning out and some of the meetings have been quite rowdy.

This is nothing new, of course. Angry people show up at political meetings on a regular basis.

What is new is the feeling that this time the amount of people who are frustrated is large enough that their shouts of disagreement appear to be effectively shutting down any opportunity for discussing the health care issue. Now the Democrats are even calling their actions “un-American.”

That’s creating a very uncomfortable situation for those who have yet to hold their traditional town hall meetings, including our local Rep. Baron Hill.

Katie Moreau, Hill’s press secretary, told me it looks like the congressman will not have a traditional town hall meeting because it’s been proven not to work all over the country.

I can’t say I blame Hill. He already knows what he needs to know without enduring an “un-American” town hall meeting. And really this might be best for everyone because he might just end up shouting himself. I know because I’ve seen him do it.

It was almost eight years ago exactly, back when I was helping to start a third party in Clark County. As one of our first public activities, we hosted an information booth at The Steamboat Days Festival in Jeffersonville. We enjoyed pleasant conversations and debates with the people who walked up to our booth throughout the day.

Then I noticed a guy in the crowd wearing a tie. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and he was shaking hands with everyone. Even without seeing any babies, I knew he was a politician and I was right. It was Congressman Hill. When he saw our booth, he immediately marched up with a wide smile on his face.

He said, “Well, if it isn’t the Libertarians! It’s great to see more political action going on down here.” Then he proceeded to vigorously shake our hands and said he was “out getting a feel for the mood of the country.” (This was shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.) One of our volunteers shared his mood about our government’s foreign policy.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the two of them at first because I really only go to festivals for the food and was busy eating something bad for me. At some point though, when Hill realized the volunteer didn’t agree with his method of dealing with the issue, Hill wondered aloud what our volunteer had been smoking.

But that insult wasn’t enough. Hill ended by shouting that he “didn’t come down here to argue, he came down here to get the mood of the nation,” and stormed off.

Apparently he only wanted good moods. I didn’t know how to describe it at the time, but now thanks to Pelosi, I know I should call his action “un-American.”

I tell this story to point out that Congressman Hill understands how easy it is to respond by shouting when you get frustrated. So Congressman Hill, if you do end up not having your traditional town hall meetings, you’d better do something so people who are upset about your approval of more government control of health care feel like they are being heard.

If you don’t, you’re going to have to deal with a large group of people who are in a really, really bad mood. And you won’t be able to just shout at them and storm off in your own righteous anger this time around.

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Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson admits that politicians often make her want to kick up her heels and shout.