Chris Matthews Tells How to Pass Online Gambling Bill
On this week's "Real Time with Bill Maher," MSNBC News host Chris Matthews gave online gambling fans a blueprint of how to get Congress to address a bill. Matthews, speaking of the Army policy of "don't ask, don't tell" for gays, said Congress operates in an old-school style and should be treated that way.
Changing the gay policy in the Army is as popular among grass roots citizens as regulating online gambling, yet neither seems to make any headway among lawmakers. Maher quoted statistics saying 80 percent of the US is for removing the restrictions on gay behavior, just as a USA Today poll found over 90 percent of respondents supported the right to indulge in Internet gambling.
But Matthews, knowledgeable from his years as Tip O'Neill's speech writer, understands how Capitol Hill politics works. First, he says to avoid a rush to push a bill. Timing becomes most important.
Matthews says that it is "easy to take it up the Hill and get beaten. You want to lose, you can do that tomorrow."
Further, Matthews quoted Barney Frank as having told him how to get Congress' attention. When the Maher studio audience erupted in applause for the proposed Army change, the Hardball host had an answer.
"If everybody in this room went home to their word processor and typed out a business letter from a home address in a Congressional district and said (to) please change that rule, it would have more impact than all the clapping across the world," Matthews said Frank advises.
"That's how it works on Capitol Hill, it's old school, it's formal, you write the letter," Matthews concluded. He noted that Congressmen respond to soberly written requests from voters in their district more than any other approach.
Barney Frank knows it, and now Chris Matthews has outlined it for online gambling patrons. So, for those who really care about passing legislation repealing the UIGEA and licensing online gambling, the best step is to write a letter, not an e-mail, to your Representative, asking that he vote accordingly. An answer so simple, almost everyone skips it.
