I had the pleasure to interview Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazleton, Pennsylvania tonight, October 16, 2007. Ruth and I were attending a Republican candidate dinner we had been invited to and to which I had reluctantly gone to. The only reason I really went is because Mayor Lou Barletta was attending. Little did I know I would end up with much more than I expected as we were seated at the same table as Mayor Lou Barletta and the RNC chairman for Berks County, Mark Gillen. I will be reporting on the RNC dinner in a later post.

So after I introduced myself to Mayor Barletta and sat down and ate my salad I noticed that there was a little break in time where Lou was not engaging in conversation and had finished his salad. I jumped at the chance and asked him for an impromptu interview.

As unprepared as I was - and with only my knowledge of covering Hazleton's trial and Illegal Immigration Relief Act for more than a year - I interviewed him.

I would like to apologize for all of the background noise in advance and my obviously unprepared questions based off of a few points I had quickly written on a notepad. Also the interview was cut short as other things intervened. I had a few other questions to ask on the Joey Vento "Order in English" signs and on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent signing of a bill outlawing any city in California from implementing an ordinance like the Illegal Immigration Relief Act that was passed in Hazleton. I did get to ask that question though in the question and answer portion after his speech. I will post that soon and link to it.

For more of my coverage on Hazleton see the Hazleton archive.

See the interview below.

Digger's interview with Mayor Lou Barletta:

Donate to Small Town Defenders and help Lou and the city of Hazleton fight their illegal alien invasion.

Also see Mayor Lou Barletta's Speech and Question and Answer session at this event and my other coverage of speakers like Jackie Shogan and a walk around the event.