I attended a healthcare “Tele” Town Hall with my congressman today, and I have to give it a big “F”.

The technology is actually rather cool. You pre-register for the event, and then they call you when it starts. Because they know your name and phone number, all you had to do to ask a question was press “0″ to join the queue. The congressman then called on people- “Mary from Scottsdale, you’re next”…

(I should note that my congressman did actually call me, unlike most of those that registered for the Senator Penguins are Drowning event.)

Despite the neat technical aspect, the forum was a miserable failure. First off, the congressman read prepared remarks from a script- something that would not be tolerated in a real town hall. Next, you couldn’t gauge the crowd’s reaction, so that live element was missing. There was no booing or applause.

All that led to a situation where the congressman could easily filibuster. The performance reminded me of a bad radio talk show. He took questions, and then moved on to the next without giving the questioner the opportunity for a follow-up.

It’s pretty easy to control the message when you have complete control over the forum. I’ll be sending a follow-up to the congressman tomorrow to request a real meeting- one complete with booing and angry people.

Hiding behind the phone is a completely unacceptable and cowardly way of communicating with your constituents.