When Texas legislators used their redistricting clout in 1991 to draw a Houston congressional district that a Hispanic could win, a wily state senator named Gene Green helped in the design. He had ulterior motives.

Ulterior motives, yes indeed. As they further note:

Green knew better, banking on the core group of Anglo voters he had represented for 19 years in the Texas House and Senate. The legislator jumped into the 1992 Democratic primary race, and with equal measures of luck and gritty campaigning, he managed to beat out then-Houston city councilman Ben Reyes in a marathon fight that was extended to a second runoff after the first was invalidated because of voter irregularities.

Pay close attention to that last line, we’ll get to it in a bit. For now, let’s focus on his recent town hall meetings. He started off in early August with three of them, covered here, here and here. Apparently, someone on his staff convinced him that the meetings were too disruptive and hostile, so he implemented a requirement for the next round that attendees had to produce a photo id and prove they were in his district.

Unfortunately, due to a coordinated effort to disrupt our town hall meetings, we will be restricting further attendance to residents of the 29th Congressional District and verifying residency by requiring photo identification.

The problem with that is, of course, that there has been no “coordinated effort to disrupt” these meetings. There have been attempts by President Obama’s OFA and FireDogLake to have supporters “stack” the meetings but as we know that hasn’t worked out very well. Besides which, the meetings weren’t disruptive on a large scale and Rep. Green had handled them with ease. Still, someone talked him into requiring a photo id. That person should be fired for exposing just how hypocritical Rep. Green is. First of, let’s talk about his record on requiring voters to provide identificaion. Twice, as a “representative” of the 29th, he has voted against requiring voters to produce identification. He joined with then Sen. Obama to defeat SC53 in 2005. He then voted NO on HR 4844, a bill introduced by Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde which would have required photo id for federal elections. Why would he be against those measures but require a citizen to produce a photo id simply to talk to him? We have to go back to that 1992 election for his answer. At both town hall meetings this week, he stated that the reason he was against voter id is because in his election in 1992 he had to spend a ton of money going through voter records and only found a handful of illegal votes. He stated it didn’t change a thing. Let’s look at the last line of that Houston Press article again:

he managed to beat out then-Houston city councilman Ben Reyes in a marathon fight that was extended to a second runoff after the first was invalidated because of voter irregularities.

Read that again. It was Ben Reyes that challenged the election results and the election was invalidated, forcing a second runoff. That is very, very different than telling his constituents that he doesn’t think voter id is required because there aren’t enough fraudulent votes to matter. Very different. In fact, it is so different that it just doesn’t fly. Come up with something else, Rep. Green. (click here for a NY Times article on that election) Let’s go ahead and accept that he is against voter id, regardless of the reason. Let’s take a look at his reason for wanting to require photo id to speak to him. First, his spokesperson claims that 8 of 10 attendees were found to be out of his district.

After the policy went into effect at the fourth town hall Green hosted this month, she said eight out of 10 attendees were found not to be constituents.

A huge exaggeration of what her boss said at the town halls. I’ll pull the videos if you don’t believe me. At the second town hall, he claimed that 40{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} were from out of district and told the crowd he wanted to hear from constituents. This week, at both town halls thus far, he upped that claim to 60{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. And stated again that he wanted to hear from his constituents. As did his spokesperson.

“Those people are welcome to call their members of Congress and voice their opinions,” she said, adding that Green is trying to listen to his constituents.

Trying to listen to his constituents. Rep. Green wants them to be heard so much that he is excluding people that are not in his district, telling them to call their own congressman. Let me ask you something. Is he going to require photo id from people donating to his campaign? Do you think constituents are heard when most of the money flowing into his campaign comes from outside his district? Let’s take a look at page 1 of his most recent campaign finance filing. There are three contributions listed for a total of $1,250.

Name	City/St	Amount
Matthew Berzok	Washington, DC	$500
Sharon Cohen	Potomac, MD	$250
Susan Dobbs Curling	Humble, TX	$500

And that is just the first page, folks. Not a single one from his district. Want something even better? I cannot begin to tell you how many times Rep. Green has chastised the attendees at these town halls by telling them that if their congressman is Michael McCaul or Ted Poe, they need to go talk to them. Let’s take a look at Susan Dobbs Curling’s voter registration (certificate # 25484700). Did you notice who her congressman is? That’s right folks, Ted Poe. I wonder: is Rep. Green going to tell her to give that money to Rep. Poe from now on? Why is he accepting contributions from another congressional district if he thinks that only his constituents should be heard? Hypocrite.

Now I want to introduce you to Dr. John Hurr, DDS. Dr. Hurr stopped me last night and told me he had a story to tell. After listening to his story, about how he started a practice at 7912 Bayway in Baytown in 1968, about paying taxes in Rep. Green’s district every year since 1968, how he moved out of the district in 1973 but continues to work there, how he is guardian for his mother who lives in Rep. Green’s district, about calling Rep. Green’s office and explaining why he thought he should be allowed in his meeting only to be told no, I thought you’d like to hear it yourself. I think that Dr. Hurr’s story is important. Here we have a man that has paid taxes into Rep. Green’s district for 42 years yet cannot get in the door of a town hall meeting. As Leonard and Perry said at Tuesday’s town hall, that is un-American. Especially when they were letting some in without id, just ask Mary Ann Joeckl, who was allowed in after flat out telling the door watcher that she was not a constituent.

You know what I think? I agree with Dr. Hurr. That is pathetic. Pathetically hypocritical.

Once again, the crowd arrived early. I pulled into the parking lot at 5:20 pm for a scheduled 6:30 pm start and the line was already half a block long.

The lady in the bright green suit is Linda Taylor. Ms. Taylor was the first to arrive at 4:30 pm. She wanted to make certain that she got into the meeting and was hoping for a chance to ask a question. She told me that she was there to express her opposition to HR 3200. She did get her chance to ask a question, which was “why should she be forced to pay for someone’s insurance when they are carrying Gucci bags, iPhones, driving BMW’s, etc.” Her point was that many people do not have insurance because it is their choice, not because they can’t afford it. The congressman didn’t have an answer for that one, relying upon his 47 million estimate and 230,000 in his district that do not have insurance, not all of them by choice.

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By the time the congressman arrived at 6:10 pm, the crowd outside had become restless and agitated. The photo id check-in process was extremely slow, only one computer to start before adding a 2nd, and it was hot. When Rep. Green and his wife Helen arrived, they had to be escorted by Sheriff’s deputies through the unruly crowd.

A man walked up and asked me who I was. After telling him, he introduced himself as Jim Horn (no relation to Joe Horn). I asked him why he was there, after all he wasn’t carrying a sign or anything. He explained that he thought it was important for people to come out and show their dissatisfaction with the way Congress is acting, not listening to the people. I then asked if he was going to ask a question and he told me he wouldn’t be allowed in because he lived in Ted Poe’s district.

Does he look 70 to you? Me neither but he is. The last thing he told me was the I’d better tell the truth. Yes, sir!

The very first question of the meeting is an illustration of how not to act in public, regardless of the venue. A rather large older man interrupted Rep. Green’s opening remarks, asking when the question and answer period would start, he was tired of hearing from Rep. Green. And it went downhill from there. Check out the video.

Once again, that is not the way a normal person should act in public. But then, people that are still yelling about an elected president’s citizenship aren’t exactly normal. Unfortunately, the media uses clips like this to demonstrate how the MOB acts and against Republicans in general.

There were a total of 107 chairs setup and it was standing room only.

Supporters of reform were outnumbered 50-1 in this meeting. That’s right, I could only find 2 people inside the room that were for the bill. One was a retired, disabled veteran that didn’t want his name used. The other was a doctor that Rep. Green knew by name, saying he knows more about  this stuff than anyone.

Outside, there was one lone supporter, surrounded by 150 protesters. Her name is Kathleen and she has been at several other meetings. The good thing about the “Mobs” is that she was completely safe, was never harassed and was free to express her views. Quite unlike the SEIU thugs.

I noticed a woman in a wheel chair that had a sign reading “Seniors have a right to life” so I approached her. Her name is Charity Stone and she is 90 years old. She wants the right to live. Period.

While the meeting was going on, the protesters outside had their own meeting. The San Jacinto Tea Party brought a bullhorn and were  having a ball.

Terry Schiska with the SJTP says that their goal is to have Congress create a bill and then present it as a referendum for the people to vote on. When I pointed out the inconsistency with that goal and the usual Tea Party rhetoric of following the constitution, which has no mechanism for a referendum, she stated that the constitution wasn’t working any longer and that, because this bill affects everyone, it should be voted on.

About that time, Rep. Green and his wife Helen exited the building and were escorted to their vehicle.

Ouch.

I’ll leave it at that. No real news came out, at least not yet. Perhaps more will come out after people view the unedited photo dump here.

Or maybe some news did come out. Fire Dog Lake tried to stack the meeting with pro-HR3200 plants. They even had 16 confirmations. Oops. Didn’t happen. Only Kathleen was there. Good for her and good for the huge crowd of constituents, who have concerns about HR3200 that Rep. Green continues to ignore.

That doesn’t mean the meeting wasn’t contentious, it certainly was. Those against HB 3200 easily outnumbered those for it, both in sheer numbers and in questions, probably 2 or 3 to 1. The questions were all pretty much the same, probably the only news coming out of this is that Rep. Green dropped his estimate of the number of illegal aliens in the country from his previous remarks. He has been saying that there are approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, last night he dropped that to 9 million. He is also now on record as saying that he will vote against the bill if the final version includes IMAC’s (Independent Medicare Advisory Council) because these panels would have the authority to implement Medicare changes without Congressional oversight.

 

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I arrived at 5:45 pm for a 7:00 pm meeting and there was already a massive police presence. I stopped counting at 30, I really have no idea how many were there. Most of the officers were with the Houston Police Department but there were also a handful of Sheriff’s Deputies and a couple of Constables. Rep. Green stated that he did not call HPD, only the Sheriff’s office, and wasn’t certain why so many were there. Whomever made the decision to send such a large force out made the correct call, as this meeting could have gotten very much out of control in the parking lots.

Parked directly in front of the meeting hall were the guys that go to all of these meetings to protest illegal immigration. The leader is a guy named Hayward, he has never given me his last name. His buddy, Anthony Mooney, was involved in an early altercation that resulted in the arrest of a teenager.

 

 

It is important to remember that this meeting was held at the Hartman Community Center in the Manchester area, an area that is almost entirely Hispanic. A dozen or so teenagers took exception to some of the signs displayed and brought out a Mexican flag. They started taunting Mr. Mooney, who is an experienced immigration protester. He egged them on but not in such a way that would bring recriminations upon himself or Hayward. At some point, a young man got right up into Mr. Mooney’s face, yelling and screaming at him. Mr. Mooney raised his video camera, at which point the young man slapped it away. Mr. Mooney then yelled that he was being assaulted, which enraged the young man more, he started yelling obscenities and allowed himself to get completely out of control. He was arrested by HPD.

 

 

I spoke to his father, Rowan Barragan. At least, he said he was his father, he was still there after the meeting. If my 16 year old son had been arrested and taken downtown, I’d be trying to find a way to get him out, rather than hanging around at a town hall meeting. But, he was very proud of his son for, in his words, being a “martyr”. At any rate, Mr. Barragan insisted that Mr. Mooney was cursing at the young man and that it was his fault for the entire affair. Like I said, Mr. Mooney and Hayward are veterans at this and, while there is no doubt that they did egg the young man on, I also don’t think that they were cursing because that always raises the ire of the officers.

 

 

After that incident, there was a lot of yelling back and forth but there were no further incidents. The professionalism of the Houston Police Department officers was impressive. The restraint showed by the Sergeant in not also arresting Mr. Barragan during an obscenity laced tirade right in his face is an example of that. I couldn’t do it.

 

 

The best discussions were out front, where those for and against it made their presence known.

 

 

I spoke with both Ms. Sandoval and Mr. Kenegos about their positions. Ms. Sandoval was fluent in Spanish and talking to the residents as they arrived, which piqued my curiosity enough to ask her if she was a native Texan or an immigrant. She is a fifth generation Texan from Kingsville. As you can see from her sign, she definitely thinks that Rep. Green is hypocritical to require a photo id for a town hall after voting no to requiring a voter to produce id. She was very informed on the current bill and stated that her primary reason for being against it was the total cost, it is just too expensive and will result in lost jobs and higher deficits. She also mentioned that it was a form of socialism, so I asked her what she thought of Medicare. She was for it but said there was a lot of fraud and waste in it.

I have seen Mr. Kenegos at many of these town hall meetings. He didn’t want to give me his last name, which is fine, but easily found, especially when it is on a handout he gave me later. I think he didn’t want to because I’m with LST and we do write things that we hope will either defeat the bill or, more likely, remove some of the things we find especially egregious. But he is a nice guy, he has never yelled over anyone at the meetings, other than at the meeting on 8-4 at the HPD substation on I-10, where he asked the yellers why they were acting like that immediately after a prayer. While he supports the bill and will take any progressive reform, his goal is single payer. As such, he is in favor of HB 676, which is currently winding its way through the process but is receiving no debate. His experience as a nurse for 30 years has convinced him that the injustice in health care can no longer be tolerated and that we must treat health care as a fundamental human right.

I found another person that didn’t like me because of my association with LST:

 

 

Apparently, she really doesn’t like me. After this picture, she asked me who I was with and I told her. That enraged her and she told me to delete her picture. I said…Um, no. At that point, she went over and found a sheriff, telling him that I was an impostor and not with the media and should not be allowed to go inside. When that didn’t work, she told him I was intimidating her. Some people. Then I met Perry and Leonard.

 

 

They are very nice gentlemen and long time residents. Mr. Pringle graduated from Milby High School in 1948. When I asked them what they thought about the reform bill, they both stated that it was un-American. I asked them if they were on Medicare and Mr. Pringle replied that he certainly was, he’d been paying taxes for 60 years and he was certainly entitled to get some of his money back. I also asked them what they thought of the requirement to show a photo id and they thought it was ridiculous and completely un-American.

 

 

One man, Mike Fletcher, was turned away because, although he thought that Rep. Green was his representative, his address proved to be in Rep. Pete Olson’s district.

 

 

But…Mary Ann Joeckl is admitted without any id after telling the workers that she was with her mother. The workers had her sign in on the Media sheet but again, no id was required. When I asked the young man watching the door how many people had been allowed to enter without id, he refused to answer. When I asked him his name, he refused to answer and referred me to Chief of Staff Rhonda Jackson.

 

 

So much for the strict requirement on photo id. After the meeting, I met a guy that happens to be a HUGE fan of KSEV’s Edd Hendee, Kuno Trostman, III. He told me that Edd “rocks”.

 

 

Mr. Trostman III is an employee of Continental Airlines and thanked Rep. Green profusely for his help in several areas, including a speech on the House floor about one of Continental’s anniversary. Mr. Trostman III told me that he had a great conservative question ready to go but in the rush of the moment, he forgot it. Hey, we’ve all been there, you’ll do better next time, Kuno! I also caught up with Leonard and Perry after the meeting.

 

 

I think that sums it up pretty well. Oh, and on the way out, long after the border watchers were gone, we had a Mariachi band!

 

 

Overall, a good meeting. Frank Mazzapica has his work cut out for him. (unedited photo dump here, if you recognize someone that shouldn’t be there, leave a comment)

He told me that he originally thought about running for chair in 2002 but at that point in time, his ultimately decided that he could not spend the requisite time necessary to be successful due to family and business obligations. Those obligations have lightened up and he is now ready to lead the party.

His platform will be threefold:

1. Rejuvenate the message of the party.
2. Recharge the organization so that more voices are heard.
3. Revamp the fundraising to not rely upon candidates and officeholders.

Obviously this is early in his campaign and the details are light at this point but I thought it was important to let you know that the activity within the HCRP is increasing. He will have a web site set up in the next week or so for you to check out.

Had I known he was going to run, I would have taken a better picture of him as he moderated the Houston Tea Party Society’s Health Care Town Hall on Saturday. This will have to do for now.

Paul Simpson at the podium, moderating the HTPS Health Care Town Hall. Rep. Kevin Brady is to his left.