By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The Republican Party of Arkansas is planning to hold health care forums in each of the state’s four congressional districts this month, town hall meetings that state GOP chairman Doyle Webb said today would be “bipartisan and fair.”
Webb said details are still being worked out, including whether any members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation will participate.
“It would be our hope that there would be an open and honest expression of the people’s concern, or support, of the plan,” Webb said, adding the meetings “are not being focused as rallies in support or in opposition.”
He said the decision to hold the public forums was made in the wake of U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s comments last week describing efforts to disrupt town hall meetings on health care reform as “un-American.”
Lincoln, D-Ark., made the remark to reporters a day after U.S. Reps. Vic Snyder and Mike Ross, both D-Ark., met an unruly crowd at a health care forum at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
The senator, who is seeking re-election next year, later apologized for the remark and instead described protesters at health care reform around the country as “disrespectful” because they were interrupting other citizens in the audience who wanted to ask questions about health care.
Webb said today Lincoln has said in at least one interview since that she “probably misspoke.”
“She’s backtracking,” he said. “It depends on who her audience is.”
Lincoln’s campaign manager Steve Patterson later accused Webb of “playing gotcha politics” instead of trying to work with Lincoln and other members of Arkansas congressional delegation to “confront the challenges we face.”
GOP operatives “should spend their energy offering real alternatives, if they have them, rather than scoring political points in the news media,” Patterson said.
Lincoln, in Little Rock for the first of several appearances in the state during Congress’ August recess, said she welcomed the chance to talk about health care reform, and that the issue has come up at most of the events she has attended recently.
Her schedule today includes a forum on veterans health care at the VA hospital in Little Rock and speeches to civic groups in Malvern and El Dorado.
“I’m sure (health care) will come up,” Lincoln said after a speech to the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. “I spent a great deal of time back in April, we did several town hall meetings on health care. We did several town hall meetings in July.”
Patterson, her campaign manager, said he was skeptical the state GOP-sponsored health care forums will be “anything but Republican Party rallies to distribute more misinformation and fear-mongering about health care insurance reform.”
“The senator knows she is on the ballot in 2010 and that she will be held accountable for her work,” Patterson said. “Successful insurance reform should stabilize insurance for the insured, expand access to health care for the uninsured and avoid tax increases on middle-class working families. She looks forward to a full and open public debate with her opponents on this and other issues during the campaign.”
A spokesman for Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said Pryor has been talking about little else than health care reform in Arkansas during the August break. In addition to his public schedule, Pryor has held two “teleconference” town hall meetings and six more are scheduled,” spokesman Michael Teague said.
“It’s been all health care, all the time,” Teague said. “We’ve had good crowds with good questions.”
Teague said the crowds have “been very respectful and there’s been great discussion.”
As for participating in a Republican Party-sponsored event, Teague said he doubts it would fit into the senator’s schedule.
“This is the first we’ve heard about it,” Teague said. “We’ve been working on our August schedule for three months.
“The senator does invite (Webb) to participate in a teleconference call and to ask questions.”
Other members of the state’s congressional delegation did not immediately respond to inquiries as to whether they would participate in the GOP forums, which Webb said were tentatively scheduled for Jonesboro, Fort Smith, Little Rock and either Pine Bluff or El Dorado.
