Our S.W. Washington Congressman has taken a drubbing in the press for his initial decision not to hold town halls. As cover, he tried lashing out. He then had to apologize. Now, even his apology has seemingly backfired.

At the moment, he needs to be perceived as reaching out, and re-building bridges he burnt to a charred crisp.

Baird's first attempt at preempting criticism by trying to short-circuit the democratic process not only failed, it caused one heck of a backlash.  Rather than be honest and earnest, Baird appears to be right back at it again: holding sham "town hall" calls with constituents.

FLASH: That's right, Baird's  "tele-town halls" this week may actually be a complete sham. If you're asking what tele-town halls, my point is already halfway made for me.

Let's review: Baird has now held two of five in-person town halls.  One in Vancouver, and one in Longivew.  But he has three more to go: Ilwaco, Centralia, and Olympia.

Between the in-person town halls he's holding, Baird setup several "tele-town halls," which he proudly trumpets are reaching thousands of constituents. To be fair, some Congressman do use these with great effect. They schedule the call far in advance, publicize the call-in info in their local paper, and have a good exchange of ideas with constituents.

The only problem?  Anyone wanting to take the initiative to participate in Baird's "tele-town hall" is likely unable to.

In fact, from what I've uncovered, it appears Baird's strategy is to intentionally sideline would-be critics.  How do I know this?

Because I signed-up for Congressman Baird's Pacific County tele-town hall, and waited by the phone at the appointed time.

And waited, waited and waited.

Meanwhile, my liberal friends were texting, tweeting and emailing me that they were on the call.  The phone rang and I anxiously answered. Someone else was complaining they weren't called either.  More emails, texts, tweets and a facebook message:

"I called his office, and he said they pulled the list Friday night, so if we signed up Saturday (as I did), I am not on it... just more obfuscations from stupid and ill informed staff designed to pacify people who are being shut out of the process."

This is really interesting since Baird sent out the initial invitation email on Saturday morning at 8:04am.  Wait!  He sends an email on Saturday to announce a town hall on Monday at 1pm?  But pulls the list on Friday?

Apparently, Baird isn't interested in including in his town hall anyone who actually wants to participate in his town hall.

As the clock ticked on the "tele-town hall" in progress, I emailed Kelly Love in Baird's district office to find out why none of my three registered numbers were called.  Curiously, about 4 minutes later and 17 minutes into the call, the phone finally rang. I also received an email explaining the delay:

"The calls go out in waves so you must have been part of the 2nd or 3rd wave."

Waves?  Now, in normal circumstances, I would take what Baird's people told me with only a slight grain of salt.  But these aren't "normal" times.   Because of the shenanigans of weeks past, the Congressman has barely a shred of credibility left.  With all of the name-calling, obfuscations, and downright lying that's been going on, getting shut-out of this call sure didn't seem like an accident.  But I digress.

Here's the point: Brian Baird is either incredibly arrogant, or incredibly ignorant.  If he really thinks I just fell off the turnip truck and have never teleconferenced before today, then he's way more out of touch than I thought.

Yes, we do live in the sticks, but that's why a lot of us rely on tele-commuting for work these days.

Besides, my husband and I own a technology company.  We know software. And we're savvy enough, having participated in other Congressional town-halls using the same system, that these are likely just more fabrications.  Perhaps not even for political reasons, but fabrications to mask someone's screw-up.

I worked my local Republican Party County Fair Booth today.  Dozens told me similar stories.  They registered. No call.  And there was no listed call-in number.  Some enterprising journalist ought to follow up on this.  The Columbian, although it seems to be apologizing for Baird as of late, initially broke the story wide open earlier this month. They just might not have realized it.

Looking back over that initial story, something didn't sit right with the techie in me; my political senses tell me something's not right with this either:

Instead of appearing in person, where “extremists” would have “the chance to shout and make YouTube videos,” Baird said Wednesday, he’s holding what he calls “telephone town halls” instead.

...

His office used its Congressional allowance to buy the necessary software around the start of 2009, a spokesman said.

Secret schedule

Here's how it'll work: if you happen to be sitting near a publicly listed Clark County telephone line on the right day at the right time, your phone will ring.

In order to avoid software problems, Baird's office says, the exact date and time will be kept secret from the public. [emphasis added]

If you answer your landline, an automated message will ask whether you have a question for your Congressman.

Press *3, and you'll be asked your location and the subject of your question. Sitting at his own telephone at an as-yet-undisclosed location, Baird then will choose a name based on its location and the topic.

There will be no further pre-screening, Baird said. After the call is over, the recording will be posted on his Web site.

Baird said the phone interviews will include "a much better cross-section of the public" than some live town halls.

These sham "tele-town halls" are just that: pre-screened. Baird is posting the recordings, but why not just let everyone who wants to participate on the call, in an open and transparent manner?

And just what are these "software problems"?  While one might question whether the real problem is that the Congressman or his staff can't seem to tell the truth anymore...more charitably, perhaps his staff don't know how to use the software correctly?

Anytime constituents are shut-out of the public's business, it's cause for concern. So how 'bout it, Columbian?

Cross- posted on NWDigest.com