The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Messenger-Post's Saturday editorial supports Massa's remarks at Netroots nation, saying:

Should Massa listen to his constituents on the subject of health care? Yes, and he has — most visibly through town hall meetings that have attracted hundreds at a time. Should he pander to popular opinion — or any opinion, for that matter — when it comes time to the vote? No.

In the end, Massa should be trusted to draw on his research on the health-care issue and make an informed decision. That’s what he, and other politicians, were elected for. And informed decisions sometimes run counter to public opinion.

The YouTube of Massa's remarks has provoked an avalanche of negative posts in out-of-district right-wing blogs. In the district, however, one of the most conservative papers (the Leader) and one of the most liberal (the Messenger-Post) have a completely different take.

The D&C has a long story about Rochester-area town hall meetings. The story concentrates on Massa's meetings, since Maffei, Lee and Slaughter are having nothingburger phone-in meetings.

Joe Spector has Massa's announcement that he's endorsing Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate. It looks like Gillibrand won't have any primary opposition, so her spot as the Democrat in the race is sealed.

I'm late to the party on this one, but Need to Know, WXXI's public affairs program featured Eric Massa this evening at 8:30. The show will re-air Sunday at 12:30, and will also be available via the website.

Reader Elmer sent today's Corning Leader editorial [pdf] about Eric Massa's performance. The Leader's editorial writer isn't overly concerned with Massa's statement at Netroots Nation, and the Leader concludes that Massa was doing what he was elected to do. Leader columnist Bob Rolfe also has a positive column on Massa.

The Massa press office also sent Andy Thompson's column in the Hornell Evening Tribune [pdf]. Thompson lauds Massa's hard work, but wonders if the Netroots Nation remarks will come back to bite him.

The Massa campaign has an email out pointing to this YouTube of Massa's appearance on Fox, where he's grilled about his comments at Netroots Nation.

The USDA has published a new report on rural broadband.

Wage and salary jobs, as well as number of proprietors, grew faster in counties with early broadband Internet access," the survey concludes. "Nonfarm earnings showed greater growth corresponding to broadband availability."

The link has maps that are colored corresponding to the amount of access available. The rural Southern Tier is pretty lightly covered.

Here's the Olean Times-Herald's take on Massa's Tuesday press conference.

The Buffalo News praises Massa for holding town hall meetings.

The Buffalo News has a report from the Olean town hall meeting that happened on Sunday. They peg attendance at 300, and note that Massa was loudly booed when he said that "the health care system is broken due to problems with high cost and lack of access."

The Olean Times-Herald also has a story on the meeting.

The D&C's coverage of Massa's press conference is now online.

Reader Vincent writes with the news that the Washington Times has some more video of Eric Massa's discussion with some activists, where he says that Sen. Charles Grassley's remarks about the goverment "pulling the plug on Grandma" are "treason".

Tom Reed says he's now read HR 3200, the healthcare reform bill, and he still doesn't like it.

The Star-Gazette report on Reed's decision doesn't say what he didn't like about the bill. It will be interesting to see if Reed can come up with specifics. Most of the critique we've been hearing from the right is straw man arguments. The bill is not single-payer or "socialized medicine", so all the Canadian and British comparisons are off-the-mark, for example.

I'd sincerely like to have someone like Reed, who's a lawyer, come up with some sensible, sane objections to the bill. Or, if he thinks that the bill is a wrong approach entirely, what's the right approach? And how will his approach deal with a middle class that's increasingly unable to afford insurance, and is denied insurance by private insurers?