Daily Herald reporter John Patterson writes that he just received a robocall targeting Melissa Bean, but it was with a 217 area code number.

Nevermind that the call apparently tried to mislead citizens by tsk-tsking the Congressional recess before a vote on military pay (implying our soldiers would somehow have to go unpaid in the interim — wholly untrue, the vote is for future pay).

Mr. Patterson’s surprise wasn’t over the implied fallacy, it was over the 217 area code since it covers central Illinois and doesn’t even come close to Melissa Bean’s 8th district…

Oddly enough, Melissa Bean is sponsoring legislation that would require full disclosure listing exactly who is calling on Caller ID. If it were law, Mr. Patterson would know [who] that someone that called him is.

In light of that sponsorship conservative partisans, who typically claim they favor responsibility and honesty, have been railing against her ever since … replete with slimey over-the-top essays comparing this soccer mom Member of Congress to a brutal dictator in their feigned rage. (And with crackers like that poisoning the well it’s little wonder the American people by and large are rejecting such venomous rhetoric.)

(Disclosure: I’ve done some work for past Bean campaigns. Who knows if I will again this cycle. She’s a great person and seems to be coming into her own as a legislator.)