From 2:00 p.m. to a little after 3:30 p.m. today Senator Claire McCaskill held a constituent “Kitchen Table Talk” in the Campus Center at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City. There were approximately seventy people in attendance. Senator McCaskill introduced those on her staff in attendance, spoke briefly, then fielded questions from the audience for the remainder of the event.
Senator Claire McCaskill(D) speaking to the audience while the lone television camera person gets a few sound bites for the evening news.
Questions from the audience ranged from the economy and the various bailouts to “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and back to the economy and jobs. Over the next few days we’ll try to transcribe and post as much of the event as we can. God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Senator McCaskill’s office issued the following before the event:
McCaskill To Meet with Constituents at “Kitchen Table Talk” in Kansas City
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the past two years, members of U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s staff have regularly traveled throughout the state to hear from local residents and to inform them of the numerous ways her office can be of service to all Missourians. But on December 15th, McCaskill will be joining her staff to host a “Kitchen Table Talk”, one of a series of statewide events reaching out to constituents, to address their questions and concerns.
“It’s important that I hear what Missourians think about the issues affecting our state,” said McCaskill. “Good ideas come from real people, not lobbyists. I want people to know that I am always asking myself ‘Is this a good idea for Missouri?’ Hearing common-sense feedback from Missourians is the key to helping me answer this question.”
Currently, the senator has staff in Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Kansas City, Springfield, and St. Louis. The Kitchen Table Talks serve, in part, to inform area residents of the services that are available to them when they contact one of her regional offices. McCaskill and her staff can assist constituents on a range of federal government issues….
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I find it hard to take seriously a meeting during the day in the middle of the week. Yes some people do shift work. But the vast majority of Americans are at work in the afternoon on a weekday. As far as I’m concerned this is a way for her to CLAIM she’s had meetings with the public while making sure that most of the public can’t come.
Seventy people attended yours. In this economy in which the federal government and it’s ability to provide stimulus are KEY to turning things around – she only got seventy people.
I’ve decided to ignore the somewhat sexist notion that the term Kitchen Table Talk refers to women who stay at home and could come during that time.