Tavares, FL - US House Rep. Alan Grayson (Democrat) had his first Lake County Town Hall meeting last night in Tavares to mostly "get input" on the proposed Federal Health Care plans (aka Obamacare). So I cover that meeting below plus first a report on an earlier event the same day.
Earlier, about 50 members of the North Lake County Tea Party who are against Obamacare "ambushed" Grayson at an earlier 5pm dinner at KiKu restaurant on the east side of Mount Dora. Apparently a Grayson supporter had organized the event for members of the Mt. Dora Chamber of Commerce, and sent out an invitation that appeared to be from Chamber officers, but it was not. One source told me that the
invitation upset a lot of Chamber members, but the dinner was held, and about 30 people arrived at the parking lot to find 50 Tea Party members lining the streets with signs opposing Obamacare and other Grayson issues. While waiting for Grayson to appear, many cars going by honked in support of the group.
Finally, Grayson appeared, waved to the tea party members and went into the restaurant. At that point, the group adjourned to a tailgate party near the evening meeting site at the Tavares Civic Center. They then walked to the Civic Center and waved their signs. The crowd grew to about 100-150 with about 10% having pro-Grayson or pro-Health care plan signs. Except for one outspoken health care plan advocate (who rode a bicycle there), the crowd was friendly to each other.
See more pictures at:
- The North Lake Tea Party will post their pictures HERE. ( http://www.northlaketeaparty.com/ )
- More of my pictures are at the bottom of this document.
So, what happened at the 7pm Town Hall meeting? About 200 people were admitted.
AM790 Radio Jock Ralph Smith entering the Town Hall meeting
Since I was not one of the lucky 15 conservatives allowed in the meeting (out of the 200 admitted), I called Ralph Smith, who runs the Lake County radio show on Wednesdays at 11am on AM790. He did get in the meeting, and this is what he told me this morning:
First, as background, Ralph liked what Grayson did with Coleman and Bernanke, and also liked an earlier good speech on the Consistution in the past.
However, regarding the meeting, Ralph said:
Last night was definitely a setup
Questioners were sorted for, against and undecided.
Maybe 90% liberals were in the audience based upon those who gave standing ovation.
If he said something right and sensible, we applauded.
It was definitely stacked.
People did get in, but I think 100+ tickets were designated already for people on their side.
I don't think he changed any minds. He was polite and reserved, and congratulated people for good behaviour.
I told reporters... the congressman was well prepared unlike early town halls. But everything in the Health Care plan (if passed) will be better because of this uproar by the right side. If we laid over and said do what you want, the bill would be worse.
The cost will go up, and 2/3rds of my business profit (Ralph owns a tire store ) at current levels would go to pay for increases in required health care plans, then I will have to pass that increase on to the customers.
I was glad he came to Lake County finally.
He was all prepared, so I didn't want to ask a basic question he would be ready to rebut. Grayson said Tort reform would have no effect, but on the news, a tort-reform group said reform the future savings from tort reform would be $54+ billion if implemented over 10 years.
He said he is not doing what Pelosi or Obama want, but what he wants.
I wish the right side had been better represented. Room only had about 15 people against centralized ObamaCare health care.
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from FRED JOHNSON:
Another viewpoint from Lake County & Howie & the Hills Resident Fred Johnson (who is also on the AM790 radio show with Ralph Smith). Fred is well known in Howie, and also was on the Audit Committee of the School District until recently:
Grayson stacked the deck for this meeting. Fred was there and talked to several locals who did get inside, and Fred sat in the front row with his brother. Grayson's people apparently collected question cards from a number of apparent ringers BEFORE the meeting and put them in the bottom of a "For health care reform" box, and then when others came in afterwards, their cards went on top. Then, when it was the turn of a "for" person to talk, they pulled the card from the BOTTOM of the stack in the box, thus getting cards from known ringers. Both Fred and Ralph Smith asked some attendees who they didn't recognize what their last names were and where they lived in Lake County, and the people refused by saying "that's none of your business". Additionally, two "Doctors" wearing white lab coats, and a nurse were admitted AFTER some people we know who put a card in the "for" box, but yet they all three were asked for their questions, while others who entered before them were not asked questions. Oh, and they were from Osceola County, not Lake County. Fred and his brother decided to put a question in the "for" box, the "against" box and the "undecided" box. But they never were asked for any of their questions.
So it appears that the ghost of "Tricky Dick" Nixon still lives, and is in Grayson's campaign. If Grayson had been above board and allowed an equal number of Health Plan opponents to enter the meeting and speak, and if he didn't apparently manipulate which questions were asked, he might have attained some credibility by allowing a full discussion of issues. But because of behavior like the above (which was commonly used in College student elections in the 1970's), no one will trust Grayson because of these ethical issues. As Fred says (he is from Howie, where they are pretty direct in their speaking) "He's slicker than snot...". This is the kind of manipulative stuff Hamid Karzai is accused of doing in Afghanistan. Apparently, we all will need to watch out for Acorn type dirty tricks and election fraud in the upcoming 8th Congressional District elections.
vj
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I recommend you read these articles, and submit comments:
Read the Orlando Sentinel article by Stephen Hudack HERE.
Read the Daily Commercial article by David Donald HERE!
ALSO, here is an AP article also published in the Orlando Sentinel
So, it seems no one changed any minds, and no one got arrested, but at least Grayson finally came to Lake County...but that was because his newly announced opponent, Patricia Sullivan (see www.PatriciaSullivanForCongress.com ) requested the Lake County Board issue a letter to Grayson to hold a Lake County forum, which he finally did.
Here is announced Grayson opponent Patricia Sullivan entering the meeting...
Here are some more pictures:
Sue Hooper, who is a on the Eustis City Council, and runs the local Fair Tax group.
I think this "camera team" was from UCF
What the meeting looked like from outside - I was not on the "list".
No shortage of signs here. Only about 1 in 20 people outside had signs supporting Grayson or the Health Care plan. Maybe his entire group of Lake County supporters were all admitted to the meeting?
