Mount St Helens Advisory Committee and Lawmakers meeting cancelled

From the Columbian newspaper.  Scroll down to read about how partisan politics and the current screaming sessions on health care unfortunately derailed a meeting about the future status of Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument. 
Baird vows to hold five town halls

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 | 9:15 p.m.

BY ERIK ROBINSON AND TOM VOGT
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITERS

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird D-Vancouver

Apologizing for "inflammatory and counterproductive" remarks about raucous town hall meetings on health care, U.S. Rep. Brian Baird on Wednesday announced he would hold five town hall meetings of his own during the next month.

The first will be Tuesday in the auditorium at Skyview High School in Vancouver. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and run for 2½ hours.

In a four-page written statement, Baird apologized for characterizing some opponents to health care reform as using "close to Brownshirt tactics" in one interview with The Columbian and comparing them to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in a follow-up interview the next day.

"Civil discourse is fundamental to our Republic, but the word 'civil' matters," Baird said. "In using such derogatory and inflammatory references, I violated that principle myself and I will do my best to avoid that in the future."

Meeting canceled

Meanwhile, an unrelated event planned for today in Longview has been cancelled after Longview city officials raised concern about their ability to maintain security. Baird had been expected to attend a public meeting with U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell regarding Mount St. Helens.

Instead, the meeting generated an Internet-fueled buzz calling for partisans to turn out to air their views on health care.

"As a result, we have been provided information of estimates that there could be up to 900 people in attendance at the event," according to a letter from Longview Mayor Kurt Anagnostou and City Manager Bob Gregory. "Because of that, we are concerned about our ability to ensure adequate security for the safety of the Mount St. Helens Advisory Committee, the public attending the meeting, and the congressional delegation."

Cowlitz County Commissioner Axel Swanson agreed to cancel the meeting after contacting Skamania County Commissioner Paul Pearce and Lewis County Commissioner Lee Grose, who co-chair the advisory committee with Swanson.

Swanson said even if police officers could have maintained order, it would have been hard to carry on a conversation about recreation opportunities around Mount St. Helens. Officials intend to reschedule the volcano meeting for the fall, presumably after the fierce national debate over health care has calmed down.

"Health care's an extremely emotional issue," Swanson said. "It's been pretty incredible to see the strong reaction it's drawn."

The meltdown over the volcano meeting's agenda apparently began with a blanket e-mail sent out by Organizing for America, a pro-Obama organization affiliated with the Democratic National Committee. 

Dustin Lambro, the campaign's Washington state director, told The Daily News of Longview that the group sent the e-mail to pre-emptively organize opposition to what he termed "right-wing extremists" who have been disrupting meetings with lawmakers. The group apparently believed the joint appearance of a congressman and both of the state's U.S. senators — all Democrats — would be a ripe opportunity.

"What we've seen across the country is essentially mobs, mobs of people who come out and try to disrupt these kinds of meetings, and it's frustrating," Lambro told The Daily News. "Quite frankly, we're a little worried that there will be folks from the opposition who will try to disrupt what will be an important policy discussion on Mount St. Helens."

"Wasted opportunity"

After being told of Baird's apology, a Southwest Washington Republican official characterized it as "very orchestrated."

"It's kind of too late for that," Nansen Malin, a 3rd District Republican leader, said from her home in Pacific County. Through his initial choice of words, "He's showing how he feels about his constituents."

Malin also reflected on the on-off nature of Thursday's meeting in Longview, calling it a missed opportunity for three of the state's top elected leaders to discuss the crucial topic of health care.

"I love Mount St. Helens," she said, and she wants that volcano discussion to take place at some point. "To have the three of them in the district is big news, and to not have this conversation (about health care) is really a wasted opportunity."