Not the best way to start an August

State Sen. Robert Hurt, the Republican candidate for Congress, will be a guest of the Lynchburg Tea Party tomorrow night. But unless you’re a member of that group or a regular — whatever that means — you won’t be able to attend.

The meeting is also off-limits to the public and the news media.

"At the request of several of our members, they would like to have a personal conversation with the candidates," Mark Lloyd, chairman of the Lynchburg Tea Party, told The News & Advance of Lynchburg. "It will be a more personal, one-on-one type of setting without the lights and microphones."

The Lynchburg Tea Party is certainly welcome to hold any type of gathering it wants to, but this kind of event — closed off from the public and the press — is a huge mistake for Hurt.

Tea party members have been among Hurt’s most vocal opponents this year. For Hurt to meet with a group of potentially hostile Fifth District voters behind closed doors and without recording devices denies the public a chance to see how Hurt responds when the heat is on.

That’s important because Hurt has never faced as much scrutiny and anger during an election campaign as he has this year from members of his own party. His ability to answer the tough questions Republicans and conservatives have for him will say a lot about how he will handle himself as one of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. If Robert Hurt can’t handle the Lynchburg Tea Party at the Monte Carlo restaurant, how will he handle House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if he’s elected but his party doesn’t win control of Congress?

Compare that to Rep. Tom Perriello, who held town hall meetings in every city and county in the Fifth District last year and will do the same again this year. Perriello has no fear of meeting with people who disagree with him and having his answers recorded. Even people who strongly disagree with his votes give Perriello high marks for standing up and taking the heat.

Nobody likes to be yelled at or have a pointed, confrontational moment recorded and then posted on the Internet. But the question that has to be asked is whether Hurt is well served being sheltered from the scrutiny that comes from a politician being confronted by those who have a beef with him.

Hurt would do well to insist that this meeting be open to the pubic and the news media, or to at least allow Lynchburg Tea Party members to videotape what he says — and what others say about him.