The bloom may be off the rose: the democratian backhands Ridgefield Barbie for lacking the guts to confront her constituents.

Since we were unfortunate enough to have her win the election, proving once again that we have the government we deserve, the democratian has pretty much been writing about Babs like she was paying them.

Today? Not so much.

In our view: Avoiding Attention

Herrera Beutler shuns the same spotlight that helped her get elected to Congress

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

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Members of Congress often remind constituents that the August recess is no vacation but, in fact, is packed with events in which they listen to the people who elected them. This summer, though, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler is listening only to the people she chooses. The Republican rookie representative from Camas has scheduled no town hall meetings during the recess, and every flimsy explanation for this dereliction of duty only worsens constituents’ frustration.

Herrera Beutler has given a few speeches this month, conducted highly controlled “telephone town halls” and held tightly scripted, invitation-only listening sessions with a few hand-picked groups who were on their best behavior. But she has abandoned the town hall meeting, which she had entered several times earlier with fairly good results. But by dodging the public now, Herrera Beutler opens herself to accusations that she is too fearful, too impassive or too lazy to appear on a public stage before the real people.

Ryan Hart, a Herrera Beutler spokesman, said in a Columbian story that she “has been trying something different this month, which is to hold community meetings at coffee shops around the district.” First, these aren’t community meetings; they’re interruptions of people’s private coffee time. Some of those people might not even want to talk to a politician. Second, chances are great that, at these impromptu sessions, Herrera Beutler will not encounter any of the people who most want to speak with her. Some of them are her critics. She should deal with it; it comes with the job.

Herrera Beutler’s retreat from the public spotlight is especially troubling because she used that spotlight to get elected. And she has held several town hall meetings since then, including Feb. 3 in Battle Ground and May 17 at Skyview High School in Vancouver. But a lot has happened since then.

Why abdicate the politically profitable public perch when people want to ask about the contentious debate over extending the debt ceiling? Why vacate the limelight when people want answers about simmering issues such as health care, job creation, Social Security, Libya, Afghanistan, presidential candidates and President Obama’s performance?

If it’s because of personal security concerns, then why did the congresswoman have several town hall meetings earlier? Is her new reclusion due to worries that rowdy critics will use a town hall meeting to immortalize their performances in YouTube videos? Whatever the reason, Herrera Beutler should know that real leaders prove their worth by tackling adversities and exerting control, not by retreating.

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Herrera is everything I knew she would be, and less. A gutless, cowardly empty suit who's been screwing up by the numbers since she made it back to the DC party circuit she so loved while she was fetching Cathy McMorris's morning bagel.

This restatement of my last two posts on her may show a tempering of the slobbering love affair the democratian has seemed to have with the Camas Manikin.

In this instance, I long for the kind of representation an Allen West (R-FL22) brings to the table... leadership and integrity that Babs can't even fantasize about.

More proof of Ridgefield Barbie's cowardice, from the democratian: No town halls with Herrera Beutler.

From the "Great minds think alike" file:

No town halls with Herrera Beutler

Congresswoman’s staff inviting small groups to ‘coffees’ while she’s home

Files/The Columbian

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has spoken at invitation-only meetings.

By Kathie Durbin
Columbian Staff Reporter

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

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Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has been back in her Southwest Washington district for most of the month of August, but the freshman Republican has scheduled no town hall meetings.

And some of her constituents are asking why.

“I’d love to talk to her about the debt limit,” said Jan Watson, a high school teacher in Rochester. “I’d like to have her listen to people. In a town hall, when somebody asks a question and the person responds, you can get a real good fact check by the groans. That gives a real indication that your comment isn’t quite right or isn’t reflecting the community.”

Watson said she encourages her students to attend politicians’ town hall meetings so they can experience democracy up close.

“The real underlying reason this congressional district has not seen public meetings is that the congresswoman is aware enough of the real world to understand that Congress, in general, is not held in high esteem,” said Tom Shofner of Kalama in an email. “If we add to that her allegiance to the far right, … she just doesn’t feel at home any more in this area, I think.”

Michele Molstead, a Vancouver writer, visited Herrera Beutler’s district office several times during the August break trying to find out whether she planned to hold a town hall, and if so, when and where.

“They kept saying, ‘Nothing has been scheduled yet, we haven’t firmed up any town halls yet,’ ” she said. “They told me the best place to get information about her events during recess was The Columbian.”

Molstead said she had hoped to ask Herrera Beutler what steps she is willing to take to raise revenue, encourage job creation and fund new infrastructure.

“I think it is possible to have civil discourse and to have a detailed, sound-bite-free conversation with my representative,” she said. “I think her constituents deserve that.”

Ryan Hart, manager of Herrera Beutler’s district office in Vancouver, said the congresswoman “has been trying something different this month, which is to hold community meetings at coffee shops around the district.”

Ryan, former Clark County GOP chair she bought early on in the primary with the illegal promise of a job, makes a lousy spokesman for such cowardice.

There can be only so many reasons why she's emulating the end game for our former cowardman, Brian Baird, who had a stellar record of accessibility up until his self-immolation at the end.

Apparently, the Camas Manikin not only couldn't find any reason to criticize Baird, she feels compelled to emulate his cowardice by refusing to confront her constituents unless they've been through the careful selection process her handlers require.

It's shameful that the GOP elected such a cowardly slimeball to represent us in Congress. As a Republican, I've concluded that even democrat Denny Heck would have been better. Electing a gutless pretty-girl who can't face a crowd? We truly do have the government we deserve.

At least Heck wouldn't have been terrified to meet his constituents, unlike this waste of skin.

And no, I was unaware of this article when I wrote the post below.

Cross posted on Clark County Politics.

The ongoing cowardice of Ridgefield Barbie continuuuuues.

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Open up the democratian web page and there's yet another press release job by Harshman... and yet another meeting between the Camas Manikin and her hand-picked loyal subjects... all carefully orchestrated for maximum press and minimum policy impact.

I never had much use for our local Cowardman, Brian Baird. Unfortunately for us, Babs thought he was fine as a congresscritter, stating during the campaign that we had never heard her criticize him.

“Not once have you heard me criticize Brian Baird’s performance in Southwest Washington.”

Well, since there's damned little difference between them, that's not surprising, particularly.

The reason I mention all that is, well, like him or hate him, for many years he was readily accessible, holding literally dozens of town hall meeting per year for a decade.

Babs, on the other hand, holds carefully orchestrated, typically tightly scripted meetings with hand selected people who will behave.

Courage and integrity have never been particular strong points on her part; her ongoing failure to meet with the people without running them all through TSA-style nonsense serve to re-enforce how frightened she is to speak unscripted, and how, instead of being quick on her feet, she moves intellectually with the speed of set concrete.

The result?

This kind of nonsense:

Herrera Beutler focuses on health care

She says feds shouldn’t cut rates for Medicare reimbursement

Kathie Durbin

“Making sure providers can continue to provide quality health care is important to me,” U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, said Monday.

By Marissa Harshman
Columbian Staff Reporter

Monday, August 29, 2011

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More like this

A handful of local providers gave Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler their thoughts on the rising costs of health care, Medicare and health care incentives during a roundtable discussion Monday afternoon.

Herrera Beutler held the hourlong, invite-only listening session at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. The discussion included PeaceHealth Southwest President Joe Kortum; Dr. Bob Djergaian, physician director for rehabilitation services; Dr. Brad Jensen, laboratory medical director; Dr. William McBride, a pulmonary and critical care provider for Southwest Medical Group; and Dr. Robin Virgin, a primary care provider for Southwest Medical Group.

The congresswoman invited the physicians to offer ideas for changes that could be made at the federal level.

“Making sure providers can continue to provide quality health care is important to me,” Herrera Beutler said.

Looming cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates are concerning for physicians, Djergaian said. Current rates don’t cover costs. Reducing rates by another 25 to 30 percent would make it even harder to provide care for Medicare patients, he said.

Herrera Beutler agreed and said the federal government shouldn’t reduce rates when current rates don’t cover costs. Reducing reimbursement rates is not a way to solve the problem with Medicare funding, she said.

“I would support a fix,” she said. “What I’d really like to see is a long-term fix.”

When reimbursement rates don’t cover the cost of providing the care, hospitals have to make up the difference elsewhere, Kortum said.

For example, PeaceHealth Southwest will bill about $1.3 billion for services this year. The medical center will only collect about $650 million. As a result, the medical center has to “jack up” its charges to make up the difference, Kortum said.

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Our economy is a mess. Barbie has done her part by taking a vote that resulted in our downgrade by jacking up our debt ceiling... again... ladling us under another couple trillion dollars in debt.

We all make sacrifices. While some local state legislators have taken pay cuts and reduced their travel budgets and printing budgets, I haven't heard that about Babs. Of course, I could be wrong, but I have yet to hear about HER voluntary pay or benefit cut. And, what's say I don't hold my breath, eh?

Hopefully, as some point, she'll kick her training wheels loose. Meanwhile, we're stuck with the same kind of clueless idiocy that marks our leadership at the very top in the White House. And that can't be a good thing.

Wow! At the democratian, it's like... Ridgefield Barbie Week! Herrera Beutler hears concerns from "specially invited" local business owners

I haven't bothered to look, but I've got to wonder; of those carefully screened "business owners," I've got to wonder: how many of them donated to Ridgefield Barbie's campaign?

That said, I have rarely seen our local fishwrapper spend so much time and effort on publicly rehabbing anyone's image as they are here.

Herrera's moronic vote on the debt ceiling bill, a bill that guaranteed our Nation's historic downgrade,m caused her horrific political damage.

The Camas Manikin's tenure in Congress has been the same lackluster effort she had in Olympia, where she accomplished precisely dick.

Just for purposes of comparison, her replacement, Ann Rivers, passed more bills to the Governor's signature in her FIRST session (3) then Ridgefield Barbie did in 3 YEARS (1).

And Herrera's empty suit isn't any fuller.

One wonders when she's going to get some testicles and actually spend some time meeting unscreened, unfiltered, folks from this district.... instead of engaging in obviously contrived and carefully controlled photo ops that accomplish nothing.

Which, come to think of it, sums up Herrera's tenure in office.

One also has to wonder about the democratian's love affair with Herrera. I guess assurances of support to the rag for their agenda... stiffing us with the CRC, for example, gets you free ink by the barrel-full.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Congrats again to the Empty Suit, Obama, and Ridgefield Barbie for driving our economy off the cliff.

The DOW is off... again... -517 at 10927 as I write this.

The pres was worried about it, so he played golf this weekend, showing more of that "blow them off" lack of leadership he's famous for and then demanded tax increases today. The markets loved that.

Thanks again, Berry... Babs. You're helping to screw this country up in ways I didn't think were possible.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Is somebody in the democratian getting paid off? It's either that or a serious drug problem: Jaime Herrera Beutler carves niche in debt fight.

In perhaps THE most UNBELIEVABLE trough of tripe I have EVER read from the democratian, they cranked out a puff piece for Ridgefield Barbie that would make a statue of a pig blush.

Essentially trying to shill this empty suited waste of political skin as the second coming of Linda Smith, the democratian engages in outright lies and exaggerations to front for this clueless moron who bears some responsibility for throwing her district and this country under the bus.

Clearly, the moron who wrote this article HAD to be writing about someone else.

For the first time since Republican Linda Smith won the seat in 1994, the 3rd is represented by a bedrock conservative.

I literally threw up when I read this. Projectile stuff. And, of course, even if it were true, it would be the first time since Smith left the seat in 98 in her abortive run for the US Senate, but what's another fact to our birdcage liner?

To call the Camas Manikin a "Bedrock conservative" is to call Lou Brancaccio honest, or John Laird moderate.

Those are 3 lies in the same sentence. Clearly, they wanted her to take this moronic vote to support the democrats; and this despicable fantasy article is the payoff. Because she's carrying the rag's water like Gunga Din, they're transcending their usual fringe-left bias and giving her publicity she couldn't buy.

Cathy McMorris owns Herrera like the 13th Amendment was never passed. McMorris, who interfered at every level both during the appointment process for Richard Curtis's replacement when she cut a deal with Marc Boldt to get Herrera the appointment; even though Herrera hadn't even lived in the 18th District for the 11 years before the process took place and really knew nothing except how to lie to the commissioners to GET the appointment, is the entire reason Herrera, to our misfortune, represents us (if you can call it that) in Congress to begin with.

As more and more of those who were taken in by the empty suit as a result of her despicable campaign are coming to know the truth that I've known all along; fewer and fewer have been, well, "enchanted" by her idiocy in Congress.

The emails I get are unbelievably angry in their sense of betrayal and anger towards Barbie. They simply cannot believe that she was capable of selling us out like she has.

She voted for whatever McMorris ordered her to vote for. Unfortunately, she is the junior representative of the 5th District of Washington State, the only congressional district in the country with TWO members of congress representing IT, leaving no one to represent US in the 3rd.

According to Govtrack, a nonpartisan congressional rating service, Herrera Beutler has yet to distinguish herself among the 87 conservative Republicans who stormed the House in January. Based on her bill sponsorship, Govtrack rates her a “centrist Republican follower.” A graph of that record puts her squarely in the center ideologically and at the bottom in terms of leadership, not unusual for a first-term member.

Yeah. A back-bencher, "centrist Republican follower" who somehow transmogrified herself for this article into a faux "bedrock conservative."

"Yet to distinguish herself" will be on her political tombstone when she's bounced out of office.

"I believe I’m hitting the target with a majority of folks,” Herrera Beutler said. “There will always be people who aren’t happy with me, both on the right and on the left. My goal is to hit the sweet spot for the majority. I do believe people in this district want us to get our fiscal house in order.”

*I* believe, and her votes have proven, that she's a delusional lightweight. Just for one example, her vote on the debt ceiling will reverberate around the history of this country for decades as we all suffer as a result.

*I* believe she doesn't have a clue.

Of course she got Ryan Hart to run her District office: that was his pay off for violating GOP rules and endorsing this embarrassment to the democratic process in the primary... and then lying as to why he did it. He's prostituted himself for a fat paycheck and screwed the rest of us in the process.

And her own version of Obama's teleprompter fetish is Bowman, because SHE sounds like a blithering idiot when she talks, so Bowman has to do it for her, although "carefully crafted" really doesn't fir the boilerplate he churns out over her name... and her talking point responses in person shows she a vacuous cheerleader type... who, if she HAD an original thought in her head has been cursed with the fact that it's long since died of loneliness.

Her lack of backbone is on display for everyone to see as a complete lightweight like Tim "The Liar" Leavitt has knocked her political teeth out on her fake attempt to get us to believe she gives a damn about a vote on this horrific waste of billions and decade's long fiscal rape of 65,000 commuters in tolls while she sits by and doe nothing.

Her vote, which is in large part responsible for screwing up our bond rating, will reverberate around her election campaign, unless she does the honorable thing and resigns, so that an adult can actually get the job.

She was utterly clueless when McMorris scammed her the appointment in the 18th; she's been utterly clueless as a member of congress representing the 5th District instead of the 3rd, and it's utterly mystifying why the local rag is shilling her like she's paying them... with garbage like this article which is full of contradictions, exaggerations, misinformation and selective memory.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Jaime Herrera is a liar: Debt limit ‘not an easy vote for me’

Having joined with the rest of the House GOP in violating their self-imposed for the campaign 72 hour publication prior to vote-rule, I guarantee you that Herrera's vote WAS easy for her... and now, as she realizes the horrific mistake she made in betraying those who were ignorant enough to vote for this fake conservative, she's engaging in full-bore damage control as her idiocy came crashing down here ears as a result of her strong effort to cripple our debt rating.

I repeat: this was an easy vote for her, and it cost her zero sleep.

Having watched thousands of votes in Olympia, I can tell you that the voting categories only included "yes," or "no" or "present" or "absent."

There was no "tough yes" or "tough no" category. In short, the voting machine doesn't give a damn what your motive may be in screwing both your constituency and that of the entire country on this issue.

In short, the machine counts a "reluctant yes" the same way it counts any other.

And looking at your paper-thin tenure in elective office, I'm reminded that you had no problem co-sponsoring and voting for SEIU legislation that would have both required mandatory unionization of daycare workers while forcing the business owners they work for to pay their dues for them.

Nor did you have any problem voting to help the democrats vacuum out the last $229 million in this state's emergency funds.

So now, you got caught with your pants down... and you're back peddling as fast as you can. It's as moronic as your cowardice on the loot rail/CRC bridge vote and your running away from a fist-fight from a political wuss like Tim "The Liar" Leavitt.over the vote issue, where he knocked you senseless.

And now, to lie, on top of this?

We should have kept Baird. Even thought he, too was a coward, he was a GENUINE coward, and everyone know it.

In fact, Boehner already knew her position, she said, because she made it clear to him back in January, at the first meeting of the new GOP caucus, held in Baltimore. When no one else rose to speak about the need to get spending under control, she said, she stood up and said that was the whole reason she had run for Congress. “I choked up just a little bit,” she said.

Which explains perfectly why you sold us out on this vote enabling you clowns to spend, at a minimum, $2 trillion more THIS YEAR? If you REALLY believe this bill did ANYTHING to "get spending under control," you need to get into rehab. Quickly.

You gutless little worm.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Congrats to our two empty suits in government, Obama who wanted it and Ridgefield Barbie who voted for it because she lacked the guts to vote "no" on

... the Moronic Debt Ceiling Bill.

Yes, I've got to congratulate both the moron in the White House and the Moron representing us in Congress who went along with the stupidity and vapid debt ceiling bill, a bill that cuts nothing and screws everyone. Well done.

DETAILS [.PDF FILE]



DOWNGRADED!

Cross posted on Clark County Politics.

Will Jaime Herrera do us a favor and bail out of Congress?

As worthless in Congress as she was in the legislature, Ridgefield Barbie doesn't seem to be having any fun on the DC Party circuit, where she was something of a minor legend.



In this video, our simpering idiot in DC gets completely stupid in answering a constituent's question as part of a tele-town hall.

Thanks, as always, to Lew Waters.
Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

WOW! Thanks AGAIN to Jaime Herrera, who voted "YES" on the Debt Ceiling Screw The People Plan! Otherwise, the market would have tanked!

Oh, wait... it IS tanking.

As I've repeatedly stated, Ridgefield Barbie is a clueless idiot who knows as much about politics and government as she does about brain surgery.

Her Old School GOP sell out of the people of her district and her country has contributed to our impending economic demise in ways that our country will be feeling for generations... presuming we HAVE a country for generations.

Well done, Babs. You prove me right with every vote and every failure to fight for us. You know, like when you caved to Tim "The Liar" Leavitt on you weak effort to get us a vote? That was as much a scam as Leavitt's fake opposition to tolls.

Thanks, Barbie. You're everything I thought you would be.

DOW PLUMMETS 400 POINTS...
Gains for year erased...
Deeper than post-TARP plunge...
S&P hits 'correction' territory...
GLOBAL SELL-OFF ACCELERATES...

IT'S UGLY

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Time to thank Jaime Herrera for doing HER part in this: US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury

Congrats to Ridgefield Barbie for helping to rape the entire country with her cowardice and lack of vision... she voted for the debt ceiling bill that fixed NOTHING and screws EVERYONE.

US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury

AFP – 16 hrs ago

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country's spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

Public debt subject to the official debt limit -- a slightly tighter definition -- was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Congressman Hinton would be a "no."

Which With the GOP's betrayal of the people of the United States with this con job that fixes NOTHING in our budget, I've got to say this in words even Ridgefield Barbie can understand:

Congressman Hinton would be a "no."

I get that she's all aflitter about avoiding "default." But this is where I remind Babs that when it comes to cowardice, a hero only dies once.

Barbie's political cowardice?

In viewing all of this, Congressman Hinton has only one question: does this legislation SOLVE THE PROBLEM?

Of course not.

It's so far from "solving" anything that I am... again... ashamed of the party I have worked so hard and sacrificed so much for over the years.

NOW is the time to address the issue. People like Barbie lack the courage to confront the issues NOW, either not knowing or caring that as time goes on, this problem will get worse... and worse. Ultimately, the trouble surrounding our impending bankruptcy, which is still confronting this Nation, will make this controversy look like a fender-bender.

This scam has no cuts. This scam changes nothing. This scam makes no changes while forking over ANOTHER $2.4 trillion for Obama to waste, making the GOP WILLING participants in our fiscal rape... just as guilty as the fringe leftists that have put us in this position in the first place.

And Babs doesn't have the guts to fight for what's right.

This whole thing is a crock, and it's a crock that's going to be jammed down our throats not unlike that horrific health care scam the leftists rammed in and broke off. There's no time to read all of this and analyze the true impacts and discover the horrifically false premises used to put this crap pile together before it's voted on, and we're going to have to "pass the bill before we find out what's in it."

This is a dark day for America. And our congresscritter's cowardice will make it darker... as will the cowardice of the GOP who are aiding and abetting this crime.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.