From around the country, reports tell of mobs drowning out and even threatening members of Congress when they hold public town hall meetings during the current congressional recess. That had better not happen if and when Congressmen Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, or Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, come around the mid-valley this month.

They will come, won't they? One or two of them at least?

So far there's been no word. DeFazio's office said a couple of weeks ago it was still trying to arrange town halls, and it hasn't announced anything since. The others have not been heard from.

Elsewhere, according to press reports, these meetings have turned ugly. Opponents of the Democrats' plans for having the government take greater control of health insurance have been blamed for organizing these disruptions. Supposedly they sent outsiders to the meetings to intimidate members of Congress. Whether this has actually been the case, we can't tell from here. It sounds like a pretty stupid tactic, one that more than likely would backfire.

By the time it comes to voting in the Senate or House, members would have nothing to fear from rabble rousers hired to disrupt public meetings in their districts weeks or months before. But they would remember those attempts to influence them, and they would vote the other way just to show they can't be pushed around. This casts doubt on the conspiracy theory. The people wanting health care reform to fail wouldn't be that dumb, would they?

Either way, unruly behavior had better not be the rule when Oregon members of Congress get around to facing the people in their districts this month. If anybody from the outside gets too disruptive, Oregonians should throw them out. (hh)