Just in case you thought I did not read the comments

I had a comment from this post. The entire comment is posted below.

You are wrong. The "paid" event was always a meeting of the Lake Zurich Chamber of Commerce. It's a breakfast meeting, and they (not the Congresswoman) charge $25 admission. The money goes to the Chamber of Commerce, not to the Congresswoman.

Meanwhile, Rep. Donald Manzullo required people attending his "town hall" today to join a right-wing organization and make a payment. Where's your outrage over that?

Republicans are hypocrites. You have no integrity.

I posted it here because I wanted to reply out here, where everyone could see my response.

First, it actually was a paid event, so putting quotation marks around it does not lessen that fact.

Second, it was obvious from the reports in the link that it was a Chamber event. Michelle Malkin even provided screenshots of the announcement. Nobody tried to hide that fact. What was being highlighted was the fact that the announcement was promoted as a “Town Hall Breakfast” originally until word got out, then it was changed to a “Chamber Breakfast” with the congresswoman.

Third, I did not post about that alone, because of the fact that since it was the Chamber charging, and not Bean, I did not really think it was worth posting about. However, when the news then came out about her hastily called telephone town hall meeting, and all the trouble that people had trying to get to it, much less have their questions asked – well, THAT was post-worthy. And that was the main point of my post. I thought I had made that fairly obvious. So defending her by focusing solely on who actually charged for the breakfast meeting is a bit of misdirection.

So, I was not wrong. Apology accepted.

Next, you claim that Don Manzullo was requiring people to join a right wing organization and pay for attending the meeting. You ask where my “outrage” is concerning that. You finish by calling all Republicans hypocrites and you say I have no integrity.

I did a search for Manzullo, since I had not heard of any town hall meetings he has held, free or paid. Here is what I found.

Manzullo held two meetings on 8 August. There's no report of anyone being charged for them. Here is a letter to the editor about one of the meetings with no mention of a charge.

He held a meeting on 14 August, again with no mention of required payments.

He held a meeting on 19 August. Here is a report on it by HealthyRockford.com. Here is a newspaper report on it. Here it is being promoted by a local Aids organization. I don't think they are all Republican mouthpieces who would not mention a fee if there were one.

Now, he did speak at a business luncheon the same day as the town hall meeting on the 19th. I can find no mention of a fee, but it was always promoted as a business luncheon so even if there were a fee, it would not be out of bounds. Plus, there was a town hall meeting planned for later that same night, and it came fee-free.

In Friday's edition of the paper, this article appeared, with a sidebar note about yet another town hall meeting Manzullo is hosting tonight. It mentions free parking but still nothing about a required attendance fee.

Most of the articles mention that Manzullo's aides went through the crowd that could not fit in the auditorium, passing out his business cards that guaranteed them a seat at the next town hall meeting.

I'm sorry, but I can find nothing to indicate he charged for any town hall event. In fact, all the evidence only proves that he went out of his way to be accomodating and meet with everyone possible, in direct conflict with your claim.

As I said in my response to your comment – if you can provide proof that he charged for a town hall event, I’ll post it. Until then, I have no proof and can find no evidence to support your claim.

As to the Republicans are hypocrites remark…I am a Libertarian, so if you were aiming at me, you missed.

As to the lack of integrity comment, I think this post shows that to be an obvious lie and a personal attack (right out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook) made out of either ignorance or anger. This time, apology not accepted until you apologize in print.

You’re welcome for the information, Matt.