pawlenty croppedPooh-poohing concerns about disruptions at town hall meetings last Friday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty was already singing in harmony with the Republican Governors Association, a group that recently elected him its vice-chairman.

“It’s democracy in action,” Pawlenty told listeners to his weekly WCCO-AM radio show. Those are the same words Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue used to describe the town hall-ering during an RGA-sponsored telephone press conference today.

Perdue was joined by Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and RGA Chairman Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi, who said, “People do not understand why it is being crammed down their throat without getting their questions answered.” Perdue termed “ludicrous” this statement by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”

Pawlenty wasn’t on the call with the press, but his comments anticipated the RGA line on tactics at Congressional town hall meetings that have in some cases descended into chaos:

The thing that I don’t understand about that, Brian [McClung, Pawlenty's spokesman and radio co-host], regardless of right or left, Republican or Democrat or neither or some — what’s wrong with any group sending out an email saying, ‘Hey, Brian McClung, your representative is going to be at, you know, Eagan City Hall and since you’re a member of, say, a senior citizens organization, go tell ‘em what you think about this health care thing. And by the way, here’s five reasons we don’t like it.’

I think that’s not only appropriate and legal — it’s advocacy. It’s democracy in action. So even if some group is saying, ‘Here’s some information, go tell fill-in-the-blank-congressman or -congresswoman what you think,’ that seems perfectly fine to me. …

Both sides do it. But who cares? I mean, so what? Let’s say it is organized. It’s all organized. Any time you have a town hall meeting, I can tell you there are some folks who naturally show up, but it’s always representatives of the nursing home industry, the local school district, the county, you know, everybody’s who’s getting a government program or got a lobbying organization.

Most of the emails or many of the emails we get at our office are because some lobbying organization sends out a blast email and says, ‘Call the governor’s office and tell them this or that on a bill.’ You know, we know that. We know it’s mostly generated by some group, but so what? What’s wrong with that?

It was nice of the governor to generalize about what most or many of the emails he receives say, because when the Minnesota Independent asked to review his emails under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, his office would release only about one-seventh of them.