Absolutely jaw-dropping. From the comments:

Rep. Till addressed the Democratic caucus today concerning the brouhaha with his survey. Basically, he was angry with the fact that the survey had been tainted by “contaminants”. He referred to the fact that some members of the caucus had accessed it, as well as maybe some others in the building. He admitted that he was naive in the way he developed the survey, trusting perhaps that it would be only answered by physicians, but now on second thought said he should have put in some failsafe mechanisms like perhaps requiring some form of identification.

He was looking to rescue the survey and make it salvageable in some form, and asked that any in the caucus who took it come forward or if any member knew of people who had taken it to notify him. If from what VT Buzz, the BFP political blog, said, Rep. Jewett had indeed taken the survey, and he was in the room as Rep. Till gave his address to the caucus. Talk about an uncomfortable moment.

Also interesting was the mention that websites had provided a link to the survey. Anyhow he mentioned how much time and effort he had put in (100+ hours in his reckoning) and around $1000. He was upset at how advocates had compromised the survey. C’est la vie. There is still more to this story as Dr. Till tries to resurrect the credibility of his survey.

Boo frickin’ hoo. Is this guy for real?

So let me see if I have this right: Till is complaining about being victimized because the online poll he tossed up with the stated goal of defeating the “single-payer religion” as he put it hasn’t worked out the way he wanted? That people have objections to a now-famously invalid exercise in political propoganda? This guy thinks he’s the injured party?

Puh-leeze. And pretending to be ignorant about the validity of wide-open browser-driven “polls?” Who doesn’t know that this isn’t a valid way to do a real survey? What else does Till not understand about the real world’s painfully-obvious? As one GMD reader suggested, this defense is reminiscent of George Bush and the supermarket scanner.

But I don’t think he’s that ignorant. After all, he laid out what the point of his survey was – not to get a dispassionate sense of the opinions of physicians, but to develop a tool to scuttle health care reform.

Which means he’s really just whining that he was made to look bad. It takes a lot of cojones to call out Jewett like the commenter says was done in the caucus – or perhaps just a complete disassociation from reality. (NOTE: Jewett – and probably Michael Fisher as per the morning’s VPR report – were not explicitly called out, but challenged by inference based on media reports. Thanks ec.) Jewett, who is one of the lawmakers Till cynically and dishonestly attempted to manipulate through this exercise in clumsy persuasion, is now being rhetorically bullied by Till for doing the responsible thing and checking out the reality of the poll himself – for not shutting up and falling into line when told to by his better from Jericho. If lawmakers didn’t feel insulted by the phony survey, they should feel insulted by his clumsy efforts to intimidate them in the caucus in a feeble effort to resuscitate it.

Finally, he’s bemoaning the wasting of his 100+ hours and $1000 that went into the “survey.” WTF!?!? The questions seem to have been generated right out of his agenda-purposed head, and $1000? He clearly didn’t use more than the features of the survey monkey “pro” version – so we’re talking about a whopping $32 if its run two months. Nor did he hire a proofreader, as there was a mistake on the first page (the survey has been shut down now).

So what’s with all the time and money? Is he wining and dining the folks he wants to fill it out or what? In any event, I think a second career as an accountant is probably not in the cards.

This guy’s sense of personal entitlement is astonishing. Time to dial down the ego and live with the fact that this one goes in the “loss” column, Dr. Till. You blew it – badly. It’s way past time to walk it back if you want to maintain any hope of salvaging a single vote from your base next time around.