Readers of The Chronicle are familiar with the hubbub over the town hall meetings that have and in some cases haven’t been taking place during this summer’s congressional recess.

    Our own Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, was in the middle of the storm. He talked about it on national TV and announced he wouldn’t be scheduling any town hall meetings. He used the term “brownshirts,” for which he was roundly criticized. He apologized, and scheduled a series of five town hall meetings, with the final one taking place from 7 to 9 p.m. this Wednesday at Corbet Theatre at Centralia College.

    We’ve weighed in with various opinions, mostly that Baird needs to have these face-to-face town halls, no matter how uncomfortable. We’ve also asked for the debate, for the back-and-forth discussion on the issue of health care and other matters to be civil in tone.

    What we don’t want is an orchestrated circus from either the right or the left pushed by those outside of our area. Our hopes for the upcoming town hall is it will be informative for both the congressman and the people of Lewis County. Our hopes are in the process of being dashed.

    The left-leaning Seattle-based group Fuse Washington sent out an e-mail blast to its like-minded supporters Thursday afternoon stating “Conservative activists and reform opponents have unveiled a new and ugly strategy to fight health insurance reform. They are using mob tactics to disrupt and hijack” the town halls. “… We must have a strong presence wherever the issue of health care reform is being debated,” and “Let’s let our masses speak louder than the taunts and threats of misguided opponents of health care reform.”

    It invited people to click a link to RSVP, and another link to get the facts “by our friends at MoveOn.org.”

    A look into the Fuse Washington board of directors reveals its agenda. The vice president worked on Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, for the Gore/Lieberman Campaign, for SEIU (the largest and fastest growing labor union in North America) and the Democratic Party in several states. Its treasurer is a vice president and director of public affairs for SEIU. One board member is the political director of MoveOn.org. One is a director for MoveOn.org Political Action and a former associate director for Futurewise. Another was a political columnist for the Seattle alternative weekly magazine The Stranger.

    We don’t need out-of-towners pushing their agendas at our town hall as part of a partisan political fight. Baird needs to hear from his Lewis County constituents. We emphasis the word “town” in “town hall.”

    Perhaps Baird should request only those from the immediate area be allowed to ask questions as time is limited and many are expected to attend.