"Town Hall" Part III: The Unanswered Questions

McHenry chose the questions himself, it seemed. He did admit to staffers reminders from time to time.

Sixty seven people took his live on-line poll. He never said how many people logged on.

He said several times that "there are so many questions coming in," but he took three from a Donald Rose of Lenoir and two from a Terry (or Kerry?) Sigmund of Hickory.

These are the questions people have reported that he didn't answer:

• Five questions on the voter fraud indictment.
• Why did you vote against House bill 3943 (an appropriations bill) which included $150,000 for the Hickory Engineering Center?
• If you are so against earmarks, why did you try to cover-up your Mitchell County earmark request (when asked) and give other counties in your district a chance to receive that funding?
• Do you still support oil drilling off the NC coast?

He completely avoided at least one question: When will Congress investigate and prosecute war profiteers like Halliburton? McHenry turned this into an attack on Congress, referring to his own institution as "they," instead of "we."

He also compared this Congress unfavorably to the Iraqi Congress, distanced himself from the President, and announced "real" town halls for the middle of August.

Avery County (Aug. 13), Mitchell (Aug 14), Rutherford (Aug 15.) Gaston/Cleveland (Aug. 16), Lincoln (Aug 20), Catawba, (Aug 21), Iredell, (Aug 22), Burke (Aug. 23), and Caldwell (Aug 24). Remember, most new still cameras have a video option. For low light and lower-quality cameras a tripod is highly recommended.