Nashville, TN – Congressman Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) has agreed to a one-hour “radio town hall meeting” on Nashville’s Morning News with Ralph Bristol, on Supertalk 99.7 WTN, Monday, Aug. 24th, from 7-8 a.m.
Congressman Cooper is a member of the “Blue Dog” Democrat caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the only member of the middle-Tennessee Congressional delegation who had not scheduled at least one town-hall meeting on health care, open to the general public, during the August congressional recess.
Cooper first accepted an offer to appear on Bristol’s radio program when he dropped in on a meeting of the Rotary Club of Donelson-Hermitage Wednesday, Aug 12th. Bristol is President of the Rotary Club and participated in a round-table discussion with Cooper and several other Rotary members after the Aug. 12th meeting.
As reported on WKRN-TV, Channel 2 that evening, Bristol and Cooper argued briefly during the meeting about whether Cooper should be holding town hall meetings, like many of his colleagues. Cooper continued to decline to do so, saying he is among the most accessible members of Congress and does not feel he needs to hold town hall meetings to be accessible.
Bristol then asked Cooper to appear on his radio program for an hour and Cooper accepted, with the only condition being that there “be no shouting.”
Bristol says he will clear as much time in the hour as possible, and open the session with a few of his own questions, before filling the rest of the hour with calls from the general public.
Cooper is on record opposing HR 3200, the House version of the health reform bill making its way through Congress. He prefers an alternative plan, the Healthy Americans Act, sponsored in the Senate by Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah).
