From the diaries by Jeff.

That was Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) pathetic explanation for her reprehensible behavior in front of her voting constituents, via the Houston Chronicle:

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee assured a sometimes raucous crowd at a town hall forum Tuesday that she is listening to their concerns about health care reform legislation.

Yes, except when she’s not:

“We need to make sure we get on national news,” Lee quipped, quelling the crowd by having a college opera student sing the national anthem. Occasional chastising punctuated the rest of the meeting, some comments accusing her of wasting time when introducing a state politician who had joined the crowd and other jeers when she talked on her cell phone while a constituent posed a question to her.

“In Congress, we have to multi-task,” she explained.

Weak.  Sauce.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a -7.

Ignoring everything else wrong with that monumental failure of an excuse, there’s something kind of big that it seems Rep. Lee forgot: She was not “in Congress.”  We know this because she didn’t worship the ground her constituents walked on, like she does for the sainted Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

She was, however, standing in front of “more than 100 people” that showed up to have their concerns about the healthcare plan addressed.  She couldn’t put her phone down for more than thirty seconds to listen to them and give them an answer?

Of course not.  Such an act would be indicative of competence on the part of any Congressmen in office right now.