The short fuse of Congressman Womack

Yelling at your constituents when you disagree with them is always a horrible idea. Also, yelling at them so that they will refrain from asking you a question that you can't honestly answer without sounding like you're deviating from the unfortunate platform that you have to embrace just to stay in office is pathetic. Arkansans are tired of being overlooked. They want real leadership. So far, Congressman Womack is failing the people of this state. What's worse is that he doesn't seem to know it.

We can do better than this. We SHOULD do better than this.

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(FROM THE ARKANSAS TIMES)

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack is a former National Guard colonel and he apparently acted like a rank-pulling jerk at a rare town hall meeting Wednesday night, according to this report from Blue Arkansas.

Kelly Eubanks, a college student who holds down two jobs, asked Womack how in the world he could support reduction in federal Pell Grants for education. He tried to shush her and talk over her — and his acolytes and punks joined his suppression tactics — but she would not be shushed and calmly persisted.

If we're lucky, some local TV stations will have YouTube film before too long. From Blue Arkansas:

She went to her Congressman’s town hall (something Womack rarely holds) to ask why he voted to cut the pell grants she depends on to go to school but wouldn’t cut oil subsidies. According to Kelley and a handful of other witnesses, Womack happily retorted that it wasn’t the federal government’s job to pay for education (he’s doing this in a college town mind you) and then quickly added that he paid for his education by joining the military, apparently suggesting that the mom of two do the same and totally oblivious I guess to the fact that it was, in fact, the federal government that paid for his education then. Well Womack tried to skirt the rest of Ms. Eubanks question and she proceeded to try and get him to address the discrepancy she pointed out. Well at this point, according to Kelly and several other people that were in the room, Womack blew a gasket.

He skirted the rest of my question and I called him out on it.. he ended up getting pissed off.. and screaming at me.. “are you going to be quiet and listen”

According to Kelly, some of his aides came up and tried to get the mike from her, but she held her ground and kept her cool, insisting her congressman answer her question. Following being shouted at by Womack and told to “be quiet and listen” like a good little girl, Kelly had to put up with some of the usual Rethuglican sleaze telling her to get a job, even after she told them she had two. (They’ve continued this on Womack’s facebook page.)

Womack's Democratic opponent, Ken Aden, said on Facebook: "If EVER there was an indicator of where Womack stands, this is it. He also said that if constituents don't like the way he votes, then vote him out. Well, 2012 we will do just that." In a later news release, he termed Womack's behavior "arrogance and pretentiousness run amok."