Michael Smerconish: Jerry explains town-hall madness

8.13.09

By Michael Smerconish - Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Opinion Columnist

THESE congressional town-hall meetings are starting to resemble Jerry Springer's TV show. Which got me wondering - what does Jerry think?

"You know, I used to be in politics," Springer told me yesterday. "And then when I went to do my talk show, I always thought I'd be taking a step up."

It's true. The man who is best known for separating neo-Nazis and disgruntled former lovers, is actually an accomplished pol. After nearly unseating an incumbent congressman in 1970, Springer was elected to Cincinnati's City Council, where he served (partly under the cloud of a prostitution scandal) before becoming mayor at age 33 in 1977.

"I think they elected me mayor because then they would know where I was," he now explains.

Springer is coming to Philadelphia in September to star in "Chicago" at the Academy of Music. In the meantime, he is closely following the national health-care debate. This longtime Democrat believes the country's health system needs to be reformed at a basic level.

Americans' life expectancy, he says, is lower than that in Canada and Europe. "We don't live longer. We have a higher infant mortality. It's not the best case for the system right now." It's a system that Springer believes "is getting out of line in terms of costs and in terms of delivery" - unless you're wealthy.

He places health-care reform above national security in terms of importance and urgency. As he says, "If you think about it, we weren't . . . having fistfights at meetings after 9/11."

Only "maybe 1 hundredth of 1 percent or 1 thousandth of 1 percent of Americans," he said, "will be unlucky enough to leave this planet because they're in a building that gets hit by a plane."

But the overwhelming majority of Americans, he said, are going to die as a result of an accident or disease. So why agonize over the financial burden of reforming the system in favor of spending trillions on the war in Iraq?

"So if you're really thinking about the security of Americans, health care is clearly a bigger issue."

But what does he see when he watches the scenes like that which played itself out in Lebanon, Pa., on Tuesday with Sen. Arlen Specter?

I offered Springer my theory that something else is driving the protests. Three weeks ago, I told him, I couldn't buy a call to my radio show for a conversation about health care.

Single-payer? Public option? Radio death. But not now.

What changed? Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. Crowley ignited a racial debate that propelled itself all the way to the Rose Garden. The country rehashed - again - the repeatedly disproved notion that the president isn't a citizen of the United States.

And from there the frenzy continued to escalate. Sure, health care is a small part of it. So is the sluggish economy. But I think the nastiness is in large part the latest incarnation of the lurking hostility toward President Obama.

In this regard, Springer's final thought was a surprising one.

"I think most Americans still are fairly rational," he said. "They disagree on the issue either way, which is fine. But I think the nature of the media is . . . you know, they bring the cameras to these meetings. Well, you know, when you turn the lights on, it's an invitation for someone to be a little more dramatic."

Fairly rational? Disagree? A little more dramatic?

The guy who built his television career mediating feuds between guests whose girlfriends turn out to be guys - among other things - is urging us to keep the misbehavior of a few town-hall attendees in perspective. There has to be a lesson in that.

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.