Steny Hoyer held his Town Hall Meeting Tuesday evening, and as predicted here, did everything possible to avoid straight answers. It is clear that Hoyer, like so many other Congressional representatives, is afraid to be honest with the people and tell them what the health care reform bill he supports would really mean for them. No small surprise given that this bill would destroy the greatest health care system in the world and replace it with a financially unsustainable system that will eventually fail to provide necessary treatments for those who are ill.

Apparently, things got started early… well, for Steny supporters anyway. According to the meeting announcement, the parking lot was to open at 5 p.m. with the doors opening at 6, and admission was, supposedly, first come first served. Strangely, photos are circulation that back eyewitness accounts of several vehicles in the parking lot as early as 3:45 p.m.  Through sheer coincidence, these vehicles uniformly sported Hoyer bumper stickers or bumper stickers for other Democrats. Additionally, there were people already lined up to get into the meeting at that time too. – more than an hour before anyone was supposed to have access to the meeting site. Shockingly, the people who were lined up early on were also Steny supporters!

And it was downhill from there. Once the “town hall” began, Hoyer and a five-person panel began a long-winded spiel about the magic and wonder of government run health care rather than allowing the people, whose meeting it was supposed to be, have their say. And this was after a long winded dissertation on the rules (for opponents) of the forum. Hoyer ran down the clock as much as possible to keep the question and answer session as short as possible. When the time finally did arrive for questions, Hoyer danced, ducked, dodged and weaved his way out of any real answers. When asked if Tort reform would be in the final version of the bill, he gave an insightful answer that equated to “maybe, maybe not.”

At one point, when asked if he would remove himself from his current health care plan and enroll in the government option he so strongly supports, Hoyer completely evaded the question, saying only that he would have the same choices as the rest of us. He behaved exactly as was predicted here earlier this week.

And if wasting time and failing to answer questions was not bad enough, Hoyer had his organized supporters on hand to further whittle down the seconds on the clock. Rather than ask about the legislation, many of them merely gushed over how wonderful Steny Hoyer is and how he cares so much about the people. It’s almost comedic to watch the organized “grass roots” on the left come out to support this abomination of a bill. They stand on one side pointing fingers at the Right for creating a “phony” movement. They call it astroturfing, and claim the entire anti - health care movement is being created and driven by Fox news and insurance company lobbyists. And as they are making these accusations, they are calling volunteers from all over the state, getting buses together to bring people from other jurisdictions and enlisting the aid of Unions to protest in support of the bill.

As it happens, not only were members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) present for the Hoyer town hall, they were actively coached as to what chants to shout and when to shout them. This was witnessed by a St. Mary’s Republican who found himself sitting near the SEIU contingent. When the chant-coordinator realized he was a Republican, she refused to give him a copy of the chant sheet.

The reality, and Hoyer knows this, is that this is a very unpopular bill, and the more people learn about it, the more opposition arises. Despite attempting to create an illusion of mass support for this bill at the Town Hall (about half the crown was for and half against), the numbers do not lie; every national poll shows that more people are against this bill than are for it. Of course, even knowing this, Hoyer refuses to back off the proposal. The most honest comment Hoyer made that night was when he said he will only support a bill with a public option (the potential dangers of which are outlined here) and that he will vote for this bill no matter what. Apparently, in his mind, it is not about what the people want; it is only about what Steny wants.

Oh, and does Steny Hoyer still think all the people who showed up in opposition of the bill are un-American?