I am taking part in an institute run by these guys all week and will be blogging very little. After that it's back to Michigan for more fun in the sun, so this thing may be neglected for a while.

But, it turns out Tim Johnson will be holding a "Town Hall Meeting" on Monday, August 1st in the Urbana Civic Center. Festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m.

Johnson recently voted against the Patriot Act, apparently because he didn't like the absence of the sunset provisions. More interesting to me is Mr. Johnson's apparent cruising as a Rep. A cursory glance at his website shows that he has sponsored zero legislative initiatives this year, and only co-sponsored 68 (co-sponsoring means very little, he is a co-sponsor with over 300 other reps on one bill, the smallest number of co-sponsors is 6 and that happens only once, most are over 50).

I am hoping to still be in town on Monday but if I am gone I certainly hope that someone in this town will call Mr. Johnson on his lackadaisical attitude toward his job. Are things going so well in D.C. these days that no new legislation needs to be offered for District 15? I doubt it.

A better question might be: does anyone care?