Liberal Activists Target Toomey
Sen. Pat Toomey (R.,Pa.) is holding a town-hall meeting Wednesday in Coudersport - and critics say they'll be there.
For much of Congress' August recess, activists from a coalition of liberal groups have confronted Sen. Pat Toomey (R.,Pa.) outside his offices around the state and at scheduled events, demanding a meeting to discuss jobs.
They'll get their chance Wednesday afternoon - in Coudersport, Pa., the remote seat of Potter County, near the New York State line.
The American Dream Movement, funded in part by MoveOn.org and organized labor, says it shamed Toomey into coming out to meet the public, even if it's far away from the state's big cities. But Toomey's office says the event, and one on Thursday in Jim Thorpe, Pa., north of Allentown, were already in the works. (Indeed, Toomey held a town meeting in July in Bloomsburg, Pa.)
"We're not going to be there to be nasty, or mean, but we want to ask him why he's four tax breaks for big business and supports getting rid of or cutting Social Security and Medicare," said Dan Haney, an unemployed worker from Philadelphia who was en route to Coudersport Tuesday.
"He won't meet with unemployed folks at all, but he'll meet with lobbyists and CEOs," said Haney, 53, who was laid off from Express Scripts, a pharmaceutical company, in February and has not been able to find work since. "We want him to hear our pain."