Daniel Webster, GOP Congressman, Distributes Town Hall 'Watch List' Of Florida Activists

Orlando Sentinel:

U.S. Rep. Dan Webster said he simply wanted to share some friendly advice with other members of Congress about how to manage town-hall meetings and the sometimes-raucous crowds they attract, by passing along a "Town Hall Primer" put out by an activist group that had disrupted one of his meetings in April.

Instead, the material distributed by the Winter Garden Republican's office this spring has created a stir of its own because it included a watch list of six Central Floridians -- with names and multiple photographs -- who spoke at Webster town halls earlier this year.

Read the whole story: Orlando Sentinel

Comments

[tiredoftheBS]

03:24 PM on 08/26/2011

What is the vision of the Tea party? It's becoming something orwellian and scary . And "they " said it couldn't happen here. All this religious nonsense to rally the ignorant masses and the fascist techniques to identify and intimidate and possibly some time to seek revenge with those who are not their "friends" These are the techniques of the new GOP.

[lvdragonlady]

08:36 PM on 08/22/2011

Pay attention America!!! The GOP is willing to put you out there on front street, if you are not on their side. This means that you and yours could be in danger.

[murphthesurf3]

06:37 PM on 08/22/2011

Webster was handpicked by the Nation GOP to take on Alan Grayson.


$3.4 million in outside funding was poured in the district to defeat Grayson.

Grayson outraised Webster by a 2-1 margin, but Grayson was outspent in the campaign 3-1 because of outside money form the RNC, Crossroads and PACs.

Hope they are getting their money's worth.

[GiannaX]

03:00 PM on 08/29/2011

murph,

So, basically Webster is building dossiers on his constituents who disagree with him?! Is he planning on having them arrested in the middle of the night and dragged off to concentration camps????

[willandjansdad]

05:10 PM on 08/22/2011

Virginia Foxx only does "telephone " town halls and screens callers. She hasn't spoken to a true town hall in this area (Boone, NC) in 4 years.

[Samnchgo]

04:41 PM on 08/22/2011

So it was ok when astroturf groups like Americans For Prosperity and American Crossroads used worse tactics during town halls over HCR, but now, if groups opposing GOP policies exercise their free speech rights, they get a "file." Dissent when it favors is the GOP is encouraged. Otherwise, you're put on a list and who knows who the Congressman is sharing that list with or what will be done with it.

It just proves that the GOP believes that the freedoms enumerated in the Constitution only apply to them and those that agree with them. Everyone else is a traitor.

[Mij13]

04:19 PM on 08/22/2011

These seniors sound very well informed, which is a great thing, because Republicans are never going to stop these lies - that tax cuts for the rich don't matter, and neither does the deficit, unless a Democrat is in the WH. According to them the POOR are actually the people causing the country to be "broke". I'm glad to see that at least some seniors are not lapping it up anymore.

[jsanti7]

02:45 PM on 08/22/2011

U.S. Rep. Dan Webster ..Florida CD 8 Poverty rate 13% (101,531)

Child poverty rate 17.2% (30,388)
53,665 women (13.37 percent) in the district live in poverty
17,011 African-Americans (22.52 percent) in the district live in poverty
33,523 Latinos (18.2 percent) in the district live in poverty
2,916 Asian-Americans (8.35 percent) in the district live in poverty

does he have these people on his list too? which one ? the watch list or the list not to watch?

[hopepad08]

02:40 PM on 08/22/2011

"I think it's pretty weird. Someone asks a legitimate question, and all of the sudden somebody's got a dossier on you," said Orlando resident Ron Parsell, 66, one of the six named. "It's the type of thing they'd do in old Russia."

It's what the Repubs do cause they don't want to face "real" and "tough"questions.

[sociocanuck]

01:10 PM on 08/22/2011

There's a commie under every bed. Won't someone pelase think of the children!

[JRsNana]

12:45 PM on 08/22/2011

"I didn't know they were real people." and "No one will be arrested in they're on our side". Those two comments reveal the true nature of the "tea-party" better than most. In other words, believe as we do and you'll be fine, otherwise, not so much. "But when they came for me......"

[PamelaLCox]

12:32 PM on 08/22/2011

The Tea Baggers started the incivility in 2009 at the townhall meetings. Now the Tea Baggers are getting a dose of their own medicine.
It is called karma.

[Huzie]

11:59 AM on 08/22/2011

What is this? the former Soviet Union? What's next for the Republicans to try? Gulags?

[mabinog]

12:25 PM on 08/22/2011

try? we have one of those at Guantanomo.

[Huzie]

12:58 PM on 08/22/2011

Well..... not exactly a labor camp..., but I DO get your point. What about when we start seeming them here in the good old contintental USA

[BillWoodinville]

11:36 AM on 08/22/2011

Maybe at the next meeting (if there is one), people sould wear face masks when they attend, just to make a point.

[dax49]

10:25 AM on 08/22/2011

That guy was right-this is like "old Russia"-what are the republicans trying to do to this country? He should be voted out-along with every republican who took a copy of this trash!!!

[ArmoredSaint]

10:19 AM on 08/22/2011

It's bad enough that people elected represent us in congress, who are paid with our tax dollars, try not to amswer legitemate questions at a supposedly open town hall, but now are circulating the names and pictures of people they consider activists to their minions? I wonder, if one of these peole were to be seen at one of these events, and attacked or harmed, would the representitive who distributed the informaton be legally liable for what happened?