[ilbegone]

A couple of things which struck me:

The aide's weaseling about meetings which were open to the public but McKeon's office had stated that no meetings were scheduled for any week of the weeks that Greg had callled.

The aide's further weaseling by stating that picking a single phrase out of context could make any speech say anything a detractor wanted it to. On the face that is true, but words have meaning and if it is a direct quote from one of McKeon's speeches, that "everyone needs to be legalized", it more likely than not means that McKeon is at least tossing out a trial balloon concerning amnesty. This is a little different than a few years ago when the politician from Santa Clarita facetiously said something like "well, then I'm a racist" - which was swiftly ripped out of context, blown way out of proportion and I believe seriously damaged his political career.

Then the aide sidesteps the fact that McKeon is the elected representative of those present to petition McKeon concerning immigtration issues by stating that McKeon is an Armed Services committee mucky muck and that he hasn't heard from other mucky mucks on committees concerning immigration. However, those congressmen represent their own constituencies, not McKeon's, and McKeon is supposed to hear the petitions of his own constituents because he debates and votes their concerns on proposed legislation. It is through him that his district has a voice. If he doesn't care to hear the voices of his constituents, as conflicting as those voices may be, then he needs to be replaced with someone who will at least pretend to listen.