Top Headline Comments 8-14-13

Happy Wednesday.

Regarding Sen. Cruz's eligibility, both Ace and Allah gave pragmatic, policy reasons why he'd be considered constitutionally eligible. I vastly prefer Drew's short and sweet examination of whether he'd be legally eligible, which (spoiler) he is.

Speaking of birthers, it occurs to me that one reason GOP Congressmen would avoid town halls is to avoid embarrassing viral videos where they get confronted by birthers. This has happened twice in the past two weeks.

Also, recall that Congressfolk are generally motivated by one thing: getting reelected. If town halls make it harder for them to get reelected then of course they're going to avoid town halls. And that's what's really going on here. You don't hold a town hall to win voters. It's not your average voter that attends anyway. And, despite the rosy view of 2009, the town halls that made news were the Democratic and squishy town halls, where tea party activists embarrassed incumbents right out of office. The town halls were a vehicle, not to empower Congressmen, but to attack them. Of course Congressfolk are avoiding them now.

Just look back at the article that Ace cited to see who is demanding town halls. A "conservative grass-roots volunteer." And "Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks." From Pennsylvania, "a Tea Party group." These people aren't pushing for town halls because they like their representatives. They're pushing for town halls to make a scene. Good for them. But I don't see why their representatives would agree to that. Particularly when these activists have come right out and stated their motives.

In case you missed it, National Review has a solid piece on how the House leadership is shutting down the shutdown talk.

Also, both Ed and Guy are writing about the delay tactic as opposed to the defund demands, something I talked about in our last podcast. Though this is a debate of tactics, it is predictably being portrayed as a debate of principles. Which, keep on keeping on that dream of Obama signing repeal of his signature legislation, I guess. Gosh, wouldn't that be more likely if we took back the Senate, though, wouldn't it?

posted by Gabriel Malor at 06:53 AM

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