In the picture at the top, the woman with sunglasses and holding the Stop Gun Violence Now is Erica Lafferty. Her mom was the principal of the school in Newtown, CT, who died trying to protect some kids. Ayotte wanted as little to do with her as possible.
Lynn Chong is holding a sign that advises Kelly to be Kelly, not McCain, Jr. A Republican woman commented to Lynn and I that she'd called Ayotte's office on a couple of occasions to say the same thing. She also pointed out to me that the "gun control" people had printed up signs from MoveOn and UNIONS, and that her side had home made signs, yet they get accused of being astroturf. I don't think that carrying faux homemade signs made by a special interest group qualifies as grassroots.
There's a lot to say about this town hall. In Warren, the questions were screened. In Tilton, Jeb Bradley admitted to screening out gun questions. "It wouldn't be productive," he said. (I'm hearing that in Church Lady's voice.)
Jeb was down right crabby. One woman in Tilton was having a hard time getting a question out and he berated her, "I hope there's a question in there somewhere." Ayotte stepped in and said, "I think I understand where she's going, and let the woman continue." Apparently Jeb's forgotten that he actually had to be pleasant to constituents when he was in Congress. Clearly, as a multimillionaire State Senator, earning $100 a year, the former congeniality has gone on hiatus.
If the rumors are true that he's thinking about a run for Jeanne Shaheen's US Senate seat, he ought to go back to charm school, quick.
Olympia Snowe's retirement op/ed piece in the Washington Post, about the lack of decorum in Congress should have been required reading for Jeb Bradley!
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