Iowa Defense Alliance

Iowans are angry. They are angry at the direction this state and this nation are going. They are appalled at the speed with which Congress has been spending our tax money. They are angry about supposed solutions to some of our problems will only serve to hinder our nation. You can see this anger and outrage building across the State of Iowa and across the United States. From the numerous tea parties springing up nationwide to the outbursts at Congressional town hall meetings the frustration that the electorate feels is profound.

Yesterday morning that anger and frustration was on full display in the rural community of Knoxville, IA. Wednesday morning 3^rd District Representative Leonard Boswell held what was billed as a town hall meeting with his constituents. Numerous district residents converged on the Senior Center in this community known for its lightning fast racing action at it famous racetrack. However on this morning the thunder that could be heard was the collective displeasure of the dozens of area residents as they grilled their Congressman over his actions on national energy policy.

The beginning of this meeting stunned the gathered residents as a representative of the Pella Electric Cooperative began a presentation on a variety of tips designed to help consumers save and conserve energy. While this presentation may have been useful, this was not the reason these men and women attended this meeting. They attended to question Congressman Boswell. As the gentleman from Pella continued to speak the ire of the gathered citizens continued to rise in a manner that did not bode well for Congressman Boswell. Many of the assembled individuals felt slighted by this intrusion into their time with their Congressman.

Finally after approximately 30 minutes the gentleman from Pella finally relinquished the floor to Congressman Leonard Boswell. He began to speak about energy and what he was doing in Washington to help “solve” America’s energy problems. In the course of this he talked about being in the military in a foreign nation during the 70’s oil crisis. How this relates to today’s problems is not thoroughly known at this time. Perhaps this was just an attempt by the Congressman to stroke his own ego.

Congressman Boswell didn’t get very far into his explanations of the actions he has taken in Congress when the barrage of questions began. The most obvious question related to energy was the recently passed house bill on cap and trade. During the discussion Congressman Boswell remarked that he was fine with the cap portion of the bill, but that he had trouble with the trade portion of the bill. At this point the crowd let out a collective sigh as one individual put the question to Congressman Boswell, if he had misgivings about any portion of the bill, why did he vote for it? His response was that it was just one step in the process and that his vote didn’t matter because he would end up having to vote on the bill again. The back and forth between the irritated crowd and the cornered Boswell continued for the next 20-25 minutes until Congressman Boswell cut his town hall meeting short. I guess he wasn’t prepared to handle the wrath of his constituents.

After Boswell cut his town hall meeting short I managed to get in a few words with him. Specifically I wanted to ask him why he didn’t publicize this event. You see I was unable to find a single place in which this event was publicized. He didn’t even post a notice on his website. This would have been the most convenient location for him to do so because his staff controls the content of the site. But alas no, it was not even there. When I asked Congressman Boswell about this horrific oversight he used the excuse that there was not enough time to announce it because the House of Representatives were unsure of when they were going to adjourn. When I asked him which day the House had adjourned the Congressman did not know when they had adjourned. He had to ask one of his staff members when they had adjourned. I attempted to explain to the Congressman that I was thoroughly familiar with web content and that I knew it would not have taken more than a day to post the information on his website. At this point the Congressman declared that he was not going to discuss it with me any further because he could see that I was in a “mood” and that I was going to be unreasonable. I wonder if the thought had ever crossed the Congressman’s mind that his words and actions were what was upsetting the people of his district.