Ben Cline’s ‘town hall’ | It’s not a ‘town hall’ if you pick and choose who can go

It appears, no surprise, that the Ben Cline “town hall” scheduled for this week in Lexington is a town hall in name only.

Readers who tried to sign up for the town hall, after it was announced to the general public on Cline’s Facebook page on Friday, immediately got sent to a “Join waitlist” page.

Seems that the event, booked in a tiny room at the Rockbridge County Courthouse, was already booked up by the time it was made widely known to folks outside of the MAGA inner circle.

Yes, technically, Cline’s official congressional website includes a press release about the event that was ostensibly posted on Thursday.

I’m a member of the “press,” but of course, we didn’t get the press release.

Wouldn’t the purpose of a “press” “release” be to “release” whatever you’ve put together to the “press”?

I’m reminded of the “Seinfeld” episode bit about reservations with this:

You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.

“I look forward to having another great conversation with the citizens of Lexington next week,” Cline said, in a statement in the press release that didn’t go out to the actual press. “As with my previous town halls, this event allows me to hear directly from my constituents so that I can better represent them in Washington. In the wake of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, it’s more important than ever to ensure that we embrace civil discourse and the free exchange of ideas.”

Problem here being: well, the obvious.

Even if it wasn’t scheduled for a tiny room at 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday – convenient time for people who have jobs and families – there were numerous other restrictions to being able to participate in this event.

Lexington residents were to get preference for getting a ticket to the event.

And then: “Due to courthouse policy, cell phones, smart phones, iPads, iPods, or other electronic devices are not permitted inside the venue.”

That “courthouse policy,” incidentally, is only for court cases; an event after hours not involving a criminal or civil case would be up to the discretion of the event organizers.

What we have here is Ben Cline holding a small potatoes MAGA committee meeting and trying to dress it up as a “town hall.”

“Embrace civil discourse and the free exchange of ideas.”

Fat chance of that happening with this guy in our seat in Congress.