As Rick Henderson reports this morning in Carolina Journal online, Rep. Brad Miller, D-13, declined to comment on whether he would hold town hall meetings on the Democrats’ health care reform agenda.

Now, Talking Points Memo is reporting that Miller’s office received a death threat over the health care bill. Later in the story, Miller’s spokeswoman explains why they aren’t holding any town halls:

Canipe explained that Miller had no plans for a town hall before and won’t be holding any now, due to this event and the examples he’s already seen from the around the country: “Our point is, we’re not gonna be bullied into having a town hall so it can then be interrupted by the fake grassroots folks.”

“We don’t want to people to think we’re shutting out our constituents,” Canipe added.. “We’re meeting with them one on one to discuss health care reform.”

I’ve dealt with Canipe in the past and respect her, but that argument doesn’t hold water. So they are meeting behind closed doors with individual constituents? That’s away from cameras and reporters, and conveniently avoids the chance that Miller might have to deal with some hostile questions.