Roskam Tele Town Hall - aka Dial a Joke

Over the past couple of years I have received several calls from my Congressman, Peter Roskam to join him in a tele-town hall, which on the surface seems like an honest attempt to engage in two way communication with the people he represents – that’s where the honesty stops.  If you have a question for the congressman it had better be one that puts him and the Republican Party in a good light. If you tell the screener you want to ask him “why he opposes raising the minimum wage?” I hope your phone is fully charged – however if your  question is “why do we even need a minimum wage?” your moved right to the on deck circle.   Once you figure this out, your strategy should be to tell the screener you think “we should nuke Iran” and when the Congressman comes on line five seconds later ask him your real question about the minimum wage.   Here’s where the next problem occurs– while the Congressman is explaining how raising the minimum wage will destroy Capitalism as we know it, he will immediately be putting your call on mute so you can’t ask a follow question like “if raising the minimum would destroy the world, why didn’t McDonalds go belly up when we raised the minimum wage under Bush a few years back?”  Unfortunately you won’t get a chance to ask that or any follow-up questions.  So much for the pretext of an open and honest discussion.   At least when call Dial a Joke, the joke’s not on you.