Don't you hate it when solicitors, poll takers and bill collectors phone just as you're sitting down to dinner? But who in their right mind would hang up on their Man in Congress? In this case, Dana Rohrabacher was conducting a telephonic town hall the other night.
The thing that became most clear while the rabidly right-wing Republican reached out and touched me: constituents in his Huntington Beach-based 46th District are nuttier than he is.
Most callers during the 35 minutes this listener could stomach made comments or crafted questions that blamed society's ills on the illegals, Nancy Pelosi, the illegals, environmental wackos, the illegals, the children of illegals and Nancy Pelosi's illegitimate environmental wacko child, fathered by an illegal.
Topics included oil drilling in ANWAR (hell yes!), high gas prices (the fault of Pelosi listening to environmental wackos who want to jack prices much higher to force lifestyle change), and – numero uno with a bullet – illegal immigration.
One caller suggested going beyond deporting the undocumented who get arrested: send 'em back when they get so much as pulled over for a broken tail light. In a rare moment of going much farther than his callers, Rohrabacher favored deporting those who enroll in schools or enter hospitals for care.
Of course, he qualified that by saying most illegal aliens are good, hard-working people, and that if he were in their border-crossing shoes he might do the same for the sake of his family. But, doggone it, enough's enough!
Except for the immigration hoo-hah, Dana came off as downright sane compared to most who phoned in. A couple times he defended his fellow congresspeople (Democrats and Pelosi even!) when callers suggested certain issues were all their fault.
After one such Dittohead commented that anyone who does not think his way is unAmerican, Rohrabacher replied, “I'm sure they are just as American as you or I.” He also offered examples of the frequent times he has been out of step with his own party, or times his own party has sided with Pelosi, environmental wackos and the illegals.
His candor made you almost want to vote for him. Almost.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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