Animal activist Brenda Shoss and the Missouri lawmakers who loathe her agree on this: Having your inbox fill up with hundreds of unwanted e-mails is infuriating.
That's what happened to Missouri House members a week ago, when Shoss and members of her advocacy group, Kinship Circle, unleashed a deluge urging legislators to vote against a bill that would open the door for a horse slaughterhouse to come to the Show-Me State.
Lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — objected to the tactic. They said they had never before received hundreds of e-mails from all over the nation, and even the world, on a bill.
So they struck back.
Shoss received calls at her home from offices in the Capitol, taunting her and making "neighing" voices into the phone. One caller sang a version of the theme song from "Mr. Ed." A number of the calls came late at night.
Some legislators programmed their e-mail systems to forward any message containing the word "horse" to Shoss. And some told the activist that they would consider passing the bill out of spite.
You know what, this may be unusual but I'm all for it. After all, Shoss is not merely a private citizen; she is a private citizen acting on behalf of a special interest. In a pluralistic society there is nothing wrong with interest groups getting, shall we say, feedback from legislators. This should be a lesson that the process isn't always a one-way street. In reality, legislators were doing Ms. Shoss a favor by making it clear that she, and by extension her group, was pissing them off. Generally speaking that isn't the best approach to take when you want to persuade someone to the righteousness of your cause.
Shoss' incomprehension is classic:
The response of elected officials has left the experienced activist dumbfounded. Even when her organization got involved in the high-profile animal abuse case of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, she had never seen such a vitriolic reaction.
The late-night, anonymous phone calls led Shoss to file a harassment complaint last week with the University City Police Department.
Thats right... Spam someone with hundreds of emails from all over the world, making it impossible for them to actually communicate with real constituents, then when they complain about the spamming sic the cops on 'em. Dale Carnegie has got nothing on this woman!
The House passed Viebrock's bill in a voice vote Monday. It needs one more House vote to go to the Senate.
Shoss said she was shocked by the suggestion that some lawmakers might vote for a bill simply because they didn't like the way her group opposed it.
"They're going to pass a bill to get back at me?" she said. "That's just scary."
Why is it scary? It's called politics. If a rep doesn't feel like the bill would affect her district in any tangible way (and why should they when they are getting spam email from Spain and Australia, and not real ones from Rolla and Florissant?), well, then the vote on that bill becomes open for a little logrolling. And, if one side has gone out of their way to make themselves completely disagreeable, well, you would take a lot less in return for the vote.
Spite is a whole lot less, true, but weirder things have happened.
I will note this seems to be the one area in the Missouri legislature these days where we can find bipartisan support for something.
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