Tiberi is a Scaredy Cat

Dave Lore went along to Congressman tiberis' recent constituency Meeting....here is his write up...it's worth the read...Take it away Dave,

Some Republican politicians, give ‘em credit, are masters at crowd control.  President Bush, of course, always screens his audiences to keep out dissenters and anybody else who doesn’t adore him.  And we have our own local crowd-tamer, Congressman Patrick Tiberi, R-12th District, who holds neighborhood “office hours”  instead of the more-traditional town hall meetings.

But let me warn you up front: if you go to such Tiberi events, take along something to read as well as a bag lunch and a cot.  It can be a long wait.

Alerted by a brief notice in the Dispatch of a Tiberi availability, I drove 40 minutes on a recent Thursday night from my farm outside Johnstown to the Jefferson Township Hall in Blacklick, expecting to hear a pep talk on Social Security “reform.”  On orders from leadership, Congress-folk from across the nation are holding such neighborhood meetings in an attempt to stimulate grassroots enthusiasm for Bush’s sweeping (although still un-detailed) Social Security financing and privatization plan.

Blacklick is not my favorite destination on a snowy February night, but I wanted to find out if our Congressman had made up his mind yet on the Bush plan.  Like most Republican Indians, he’s been dancing carefully around this bonfire of an issue, wanting to show loyalty to the tribe without getting burnt.

“While we have not seen specific legislative proposals yet, I agree with the concepts that the President laid out in his (State of the Union) speech,” Tiberi said in his on-line Capitol Notebook on Feb. 6.  “He’s showing courage in asking on an issue that many people either are not willing to address at this time, or wish to use against him for their own political purposes.”

That’s the tribe loyalty part.  But avoiding the flames, Tiberi also said he finds it difficult to believe the Bush plan will pass “without substantial support in my district and across the country…”

So what specifically does our Congressman think of privatizing Social Security, the risk of pegging retirement benefits to the stock market, the estimated $2 trillion transition cost and the White House’s own admission that privatization will do nothing to solve the fund’s long-term financial problems?  Maybe I’d find out.

I also wanted to find out if Tiberi had sorted out his feelings about a federal constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages nationwide.  As in the case of  Social Security, our Congressman has sent out mixed signals on the issue.

Last April, in response to a letter from my Quaker meeting, Tiberi said he opposed same-sex marriages but also opposed amending the U.S. constitution, preferring to leave the matter up to the states.  Still, five months later, when the federal amendment came up for a vote in the House, Tiberi voted in favor of the ban.

  At that time, in September, the House failed to come up with the two-thirds majority necessary to launch the amendment.  But Bush, most Republicans and right-wing Evangelicals continue to push for passage.

Certainly, I wasn’t alone in wanting questions answered.  Arriving 20 minutes early, I found the small township hall parking lot packed to overflowing and a crowd of 60 or 70 people squeezed into space adequate only trustee forums on potholes and zoning petitions. 

The Congressman was nowhere to be seen but an aide explained I needed to sign in and wait my turn which, in this case, was last.  Instead of a public talk, Tiberi preferred to talk to constituents privately,  usually one at a time,  for five minutes or so, she said.

One explanation is that Tiberi likes that personal , flesh-on-flesh contact.  Another, more cynical, take would be that he finds it easier to deal with complaints one-on-one instead of facing an angry crowd.  A town-hall meeting might be pure democracy but it can be difficult for the politician taking the heat, given that people get excited and energized when they find out their neighbors have the same complaints they do. And heaven forbid, there might be reporter who would go back and write that the folks in Jefferson Township are mad and ain’t going to take it anymore.

Maybe I should have been flattered to have a chance at a personal audience with the honorable gentleman from the 12th District.  But do the math. 

Allowing 5 minutes for each person, it could take  4 or 5 hours to move this crowd through the back room where Tiberi remained cloistered.  A few group sessions might move things along, but it still looked like a long night drinking coffee and reading township bulletins out in the waiting room, even if everybody held to the time limits, which seemed unlikely.

After two hours, most of the assembled had either been escorted back to their secret briefing or given up and gone home without ever seeing hide-nor-hair of the featured speaker.  By 9 p.m., about a dozen of us remained and, given my place on the list, that meant at least another hour awaiting the Man.  The coffee pot had long gone cold and my fellow voters, most of whom seemed  to be there to complain about the Social Security plan or budget cuts, had exhausted all enthusiasm for chatting up strangers. 

So my best option seemed to be give Tiberi a piece of my mind on his official “office hours questionnaire” and take my questions instead to his district director, Sally Testa.

Testa’s take was that Bush is showing great courage in attacking a problem nobody else wants to touch.  Yes, she admitted, there are a lot of unhappy people in Congress right now.  But private retirement accounts, she thinks, are the only way to make sure our grandchildren get a decent retirement. 

She’s not worried that the transition costs would saddle those grandchildren with multi-trillion dollar debt,.  The private accounts, she explained, could be phased in over a long  period of time, maybe decades (or centuries?).   “I can’t understand why the opposition,” she said.

With the moon rising high and the hour growing late,  I sized up the staying power of the dozen people  still ahead of me on the interview list.  They looked like a pretty determined bunch, not likely to abide by any 5-minute rule once they gained the inner sanctum.

So after more than two hours, without my interview or even a glimpse of the honorable gentleman from the 12th District, I headed back out into the night.  There’s still plenty of time before Tiberi runs for re-election in 2006, I figured.  And I’ll be watching him closely.

David Lore
McKean Township

Comments

[Bob Finney]

Sounds like another Tiberi Shuffle. Oh, well. I wouldn't have expected any better. I don't understand how he got elected in the first place. Let's hope he doesn't do it again.

[Virginia Maxfield]

This is a comment/question I would like the Rep Tiberi to answer. I have heard a quick comment on CNN that the transition cost from SS to private accounts will occur by selling government treasury bonds and securities. What country has bought most U. S. treasury bonds and securities? CHINA!! They already hold $780 billion in bonds and securities. How does that sit with Mr. Tiberi and other Republicans to know that China holds our future in their hands?

This point never seems to be brought out for the public to condsider!