Republicans offer to host Glenn Nye – Nye declines!
By Brian Kirwin | Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | PolicyVirginia Beach Republican Chairman Ken Golden has invited Congressman Glenn Nye to speak at the weekly Saturday Republican breakfast in Virginia Beach, since the local Democrats canceled his appearance with them.
No word yet on whether Nye has accepted or declined. UPDATE: According to Chairman Golden, Nye’s office has declined the GOP invitation because, get this, Nye “needs more time to prepare.”
He was prepared for the Democrats on Saturday, but now he’s suddenly unprepared?
Press release is below:
Republicans invite Congressman Glenn Nye to speak at Saturday Breakfast
VIRGINIA BEACH – Ken Golden, Chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, personally invited his friend Second District Congressman Glenn Nye to speak at this Saturday’s weekly Republican Breakfast. Virginia Beach Democrats withdrew an invitation to Rep. Nye at their breakfast to be held the same day.
“We’re not in the habit of giving a platform to Democrats at our weekly breakfast,” said Ken Golden. “But since Nye’s own party withdrew its invitation, and lots of citizens would like the opportunity to ask questions of their Representative, I offered the Congressman as much speaking time as he’d like to have.”
The Democratic Blog, www.vbdems.org, announced that the Democrat’s invitation to Nye was withdrawn because although it “was never publicized as a Town Hall Meeting and was never intended to be such,” many more citizens were planning to attend than expected.
“It’s clear that he will have some free time on Saturday now,” added Golden. “I’m sure the Congressman is sincere in wanting to speak to and take questions from constituents, and since his other invitation was canceled, I hope he’ll accept ours.”Congressman Nye’s office
is considering the invitation, and at this point,hasnot accepted nordeclined. The GOP Breakfasts are held Saturday mornings at 8:30 am at the Crown Plaza hotel on Bonney Rd. in Virginia Beach.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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13 Responses to "Republicans offer to host Glenn Nye – Nye declines!"
VBDems.org is not “the Democratic Blog”, it’s a Democratic blog. It is not an official site of the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee.
The VBDC withdrew the invitation mainly due to concern that the venue where breakfasts are held would not be able to accommodate the number of people who were planning to come based on misunderstanding that Nye’s presentation to the VBDC was a public town hall on health care. It was never officially billed as such, and the VBDC was expecting the usual number of people in attendance when high profile public officials are the keynote for the breakfast.
So, now it’s not the meaning of “is” – it’s the meaning of “the”?
If capacity is the issue, why don’t they just limit it to a first come, first serve basis and only let in the amount allowed per the fire code? Better yet why didn’t they simply move the meeting to a larger venue to accomodate more guests?
Joel – Brian correctly stated “The Democratic blog…” and not “the Democratic blog…” Democratic Blog is used as an adjective to describe http://www.vbdems.org.
more reason to elect Chuck Smith!
Seriously, Nye couldn’t have accepted. That would be backhanding his own local party. Accepting the Republican offer would be asking for legitimate ridicule.
The smart thing to do would be to take time to host a Town Hall in a larger venue, picked by Nye’s office. I hope he does. It will look kinda bad if he doesn’t face his constituents and get respectfully given feedback. This is a huge issue that obviously is having an impact. It seems to be on the minds of Americans everywhere. I look forward to a future Glenn Nye Town Hall on this.
I would love to voice my displeasure at the socialized medicine that some Democrats are trying to force on us. I feel it will endanger our economy and our lives. I would like to say so, and I would do that with respect as I ask him to vote against this sorry excuse for health care reform.
Shouldn’t it read “the democrat blog”?
Just wanted to make sure readers understood that vbdems.org is not the official blog of the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee.
Nye wasn’t planning on speaking about healthcare solely, and his presentation, including the Q&A, was scheduled to last for one hour. What Goldman asked of him would require some additional preparation.
Britt, how would it be backhanding his local party? His local party is the one who canceled the meeting. The GOP offer was made in good faith, and Nye turned it down.
The GOP breakfast has invited Libertarians to speak, and there were some pretty hard questions asked, but I’ve never experienced anyone yelling at the Beach’s GOP breakfast. Citizens have opinions and questions that sometimes are passionate and strong, but every speaker is given respect.
Nye didn’t want to risk that, at least not in Virginia Beach. He did have an invitation-only forum in Norfolk.
The funny thing is, given his comments there, he’d probably get pats on the back at a GOP breakfast.
Aw, c’mon Brian. Perhaps some wouldn’t take advantage of the situation, but I’d bet others couldn’t resist sticking it to the Dems for having to take over a meeting that they couldn’t handle.
Additonally, it would in effect rob the Dems of a high profile and Dem energizing speaker (already done thanks to that particular blog)that would bring in larger crowds only to give it to the GOP. Its like your girlfriend going to your prom with a rival when you became seriously ill. It just isn’t right.
I don’t doubt that Nye would have been respectfully treated given the situation. Well, there’s always a chance a loose cannon could show up, but in general I agree with you there. Still, If I was Nye, I would have turned Golden down as well. Some other occasion were it couldn’t be said you were “dissing” your own party and further alienate the Blue dog from all the Yellow ones. See………red…..blue……purple….green……yellow…….we’re still caught up on stupid colors. The Yellow Dogs on Vivian Paige’s site are grumpy with Blue Dog Nye even though it takes a conservative Democrat to repeatedly carry the 2nd district. A real lefty would never make it to term #2.
By the way, Vivian’s site as Dem blogs go, far surpasses other local Dem blogs I’ve visited. Just sayin’…..
Nye will NOT be holding a health care town hall during this recess. Period. Could Moran, Perriello or Scott have gotten away with that?
Refusing to meet with his constituency – He just lost my vote.
He wasn’t elected solely by Democrats, and he wasn’t elected to serve as a Democratic Party representative. He’s young in his tenure, but he could soon become a lame duck to his constituency. Time to make a difference and meet with those he “represents”, regardless of the venue. If he must, make “unannounced, drop-in visits” to civic groups, church congregational meetings, Masons, small business expositions, etc. Ten visits to representative groups in two weeks could give him a good cross section of those he governs without attracting the loons who come to protest rather than discuss. Refusing to discuss issues with those you lead isn’t a good way to build the foundation of your trade, regardless of what you do for a living. Be a representative of your people, not a pawn for your party and their lobbyists.
[...] Bearing Drift has suffered the same frustration with Congressman Nye for the past two years. I personally engaged in several efforts to provide Nye with a forum to engage with voters. He just was not interested. When Democrats canceled a forum scheduled during a Democrat breakfast, I advocated opening the podium of the simultaneously scheduled Republican breakfast to him. [...]
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