Specter Town Hall Crowd Gets Rough And Rowdy (VIDEO)

Senator Arlen Specter, (D-Penn.) faced an overwhelmingly hostile crowd on Tuesday, with attendees at a town hall forum challenging him with a host of deeply cynical and occasionally erroneous allegations about the president's health care agenda.

One man threatened the senator with God's wrath. "One day, God's gonna stand before you," he said. "And he's gonna judge you and the rest of your damn cronies up on the Hill, and then you can get your just deserts."

At one point, the event grew so testy that police and security guards took to the aisles to separate crowd members from each other, and a protester from the senator.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute," Specter told police as they circled around one angry town hall participant. "He has a right to leave. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You wanna leave? Leave!"

Otherwise, Specter stayed composed through it all, often offering terse answers to the various complaints that were leveled in his direction. He pledged not to support a health care bill that increased the deficit or one that covered illegal immigrants. He shot down assertions that the House of Representative's legislation would fund euthanasia and thanked the questioners who actually said they supported comprehensive reform.

Those participants, however, were far and away the minority. The event was held in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a reliable GOP stronghold in the state. At one point, an attendee thanked Specter for having the courage to address the people who got him elected: "Republicans." It was a thinly veiled shot at the Senator's defection from the GOP earlier in the year.

The entire episode, carried live by all three major cable news stations, offered a window into the type of conservative histrionics currently being exhibited at these town hall forums. It also, at least in one instance, exposed how unconstructive some of these opponents of reform truly are. After one participant detailed his concerns with the legislation, Specter asked the gentleman what he would like to see done.

"Some of the things I would like to be done, okay, are..." the man paused, searching for an answer.

"Tort reform!" the crowd screamed.

"Tort reform, yes," the man responded. "Thank you very much, I lost the chain of thought."

And then he was off. "Some of the things in our current bill that I don't particularly like, and you have addressed already, one of them was non-U.S. citizens health care. You have indicated that you would not vote for a bill that has non U.S. health provisions within it. I do recommend though that we do what the state of New York does for the homeless. We can take the non-U.S. citizens and give them an airplane ticket and ship them back."

The man ended his speech by telling Specter that one of the positive things he could to, "which would make it extremely memorable for yourself, is you could go back and propose a bill for term limits."

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Comments

[BitterInPA]

02:23 PM on 08/16/2009

What did Bill Maher say the other night? "These town halls are filled with angry, chunky white people."

Tort reform? These are the very people who are a burden on our health care system. Many of them should try to get down from morbidly obese to simply obese. I guess the camera really adds 110 pounds, because I have never seen so many unhealthy people as I have at these town halls.

[JazzyJim]

07:09 PM on 08/12/2009

Oh, and the clip of the day courtesy of Morning Jo on Glenn Beck - http://www.mediaite.com/tv/joe-scarborough-bashes-beck-over-yesterdays-fnc-show/

[JazzyJim]

07:02 PM on 08/12/2009

Man, the guy didn't have a point, he just wanted to do what he was hired to do...disrupt the proceedings. He wasn't there about "health care" reform, he was there because the Insurance companies and local RNC are sending their "foot soldiers" out "just to disrupt the conversation. This is a sad episode in American History - all the wars and fighting and now, average citizens will sell out to corporations or the RNC party's fear and hate tactics of anarchy. Contact your Senators and let them know you support the reform despite the "plants" by the RNC/Lobbyists.

[blackjedi47]

06:49 PM on 09/09/2009

Dead on target comment!

[huffingt]

03:58 PM on 08/12/2009

We don't want our country to be like Russia but we will follow Russian Or ly"
"We are informed citizens but would follow Pa li n because she is the only one who can see Russia from her porch"
"We don't want socialist medicine but want social security, unemployment insurance and medicare"
"We want our country back -back from intellectual people"
"We don't want govt.bureacrates- we can elect govt. Mo rans "
"We don't need a birth certificate to show any where, for any thing but want others to show theirs"
"We want States Right to governance and succession but could use your stimulus money"
"We don't want Govt control but I want them to stand by me at every crises & Katrina in my life"
"We are Americans so we excercise our rights over others"
"We are unique in our own stu pi dity ,so, America is the only place for me"
"We go for meetings to say hands off me when I put my foot in my mouth"
"We can repeat the words constitution, first ,& second amendment , further than that -we would simply say Our Fore Fathers and Spouses "

[Passenger57]

02:02 PM on 08/12/2009

Remember all the screaming and yelling when the Bush administration held those town-hall meetings to explain why he was going to invade Iraq? Me neither...
He just went ahead, ignored the anti-war protestors in America and the millions around the world screaming NO (with the help of the mostly lap-dog media) , and went in. A fine mess he started and left for President Obama.
It's time for Obama to stop the town-hall meetings and just DO IT. Forget 'bipartisan'.
It's for the good of the country...

[chicagurl]

02:30 PM on 08/12/2009

Could not agree more. Obama needs to stop going on about bi-partisan support. It's not there, he needs to move on and do good for the country whether the republicans are onboard or not.

[CityGardner]

12:57 PM on 08/13/2009

JUST DO IT should be the Democratic new watchword. The President has extended his hand to Repubs again and again. Repubs have repeatedly been given the chance to act like responsible citizen and responsible legislators. But they are too busy throwing trivia-tantrums or protecting BigMed to care about real-world legislation.

. We have the votes, let do the voting! As soon as honest, affordable health care is available to every person in this country, then count on it - every one of those screaming lackwits at the town hall meetings will be screaming for more.

[mitsie]

08:33 AM on 08/12/2009

This is a must read about healthcare reform. This is written by a man who is CEO of Whole Foods, who sell yes, food and natural products. He obviously is trying to boost the income of that company by making these remarks. He is wanting to pull all regulations of the insurance companies. This article made me furious this morning.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

[dophie]

01:47 PM on 08/12/2009

holy crap! Is this guy for real??? To quote Murphy Brown, "WHAT PLANET IS HE ON?"

This insurance deregulation he's proposing will work as well as the Wall Street/banking deregulation did. Yeah! Lets shoot our selves in the foot again!

Does this guy not know who his market is? I'm sure there are no statistics, but I think he just alienated more than half of his customers. I know I am certainly not shopping at Whole Foods now.

[bertha112]

08:19 AM on 08/12/2009

I'm not saying it's theater, but I noticed that the lady sitting in the front row to the rigth of Specter (green or blue top depending upon your machine's resolution) who begins to film intently (notice she stands on a chair behind Specter) is the same person who reads the question at the end (search NBC News Video - I linked below) of certain videos. It was interesting to watch her and her husband during this gentleman's tirade. I respect everyone's right to film the event if they so choose and to ask guestions, but it seems just a little contrived. In the NBC Video, she identified as a Conservative Republican, but I wonder how much of their presence is to actually protest or to create footage for Youtube. Unfortunately, many MSM outlets are using the same video.

"Lazy Journalism!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/20381145#32379430

[humanity60]

08:14 AM on 08/12/2009

Salem Witch Hunts of 1692..The people at these town hall meetings only wanted to distract and destroy.
The louder their voices got the more crazier they looked. I was worried for Specter and McCaskill's safety.
There was no civility and it reminded me of the crowds in a witch hunt. Q&A works if you conduct yourself with rational thoughtful questions and express your concerns in a calm voice.

[mitsie]

08:36 AM on 08/12/2009

The MSM is not doing their jobs again!!!! If you look at these townhalls, notice the amount of people protesting. They are spread out over the floor not standing in the back. They are given too much hype, and not enough criticism. Look at the crowds outside the buildings, they number no more then the teabag rallies. These people are the teabaggers in my opinion. We need to get the MSM to report on this fairly.

[Ipanema]

09:27 AM on 08/12/2009

It is the Salem Witch Trials all over again, with Judge Thomas Danforth (1622-1699) presiding. Too bad there is no Roger Williams (1603-1623) around to impose some sanity into the preceedings!

[sueinmn]

08:01 AM on 08/12/2009

Lets hope the college kids get politically motivated as their parents are so dumbed down, we need their votes to cleam up America!

[LiberalDemIda]

01:57 PM on 08/12/2009

The college kids are rising. The last election proved it, that's why most pollsters don't (can't) get an accurate number on their daily tracking. College kids rarely have landlines. It's all cell.

They buck their parents' ideology because they're computer savvy and with all the Internet meeting sites, the word spreads like wildfire. There are a few that remain republicant-deluded, but they are in the minority and shrinking.

I've watched George Lopez last night on his HBO special. He eviscerates the GOP for trying to halt the appointment of Sotomayor and the over 14,000 Latinos in his audience roared in cheer when he said the GOP has lost the Latino vote. As we know, the Latino demographic is, by far, the fastest growing voting block in the U.S. - in all States.

No wonder McCain warned about Latino voter registration. His message was to suppress registration, not to warn his fellow GOPers to stop harassing Latino pols, and he proved it by voting against Sotomayor's appointment to SCOTUS, a vote which brought on a deafening roar of angry jeers by the huge Latino audience.

[Dastius-Krazitauc]

07:46 AM on 08/12/2009

There was a threat on CSPAN's "Washington Journal", aka "The Paranoid and Bitter Call-in Show", just now. An angry man said if we thought measly little interruptions of town-hall meetings were upsetting, we hadn't seen anything yet. He was almost giddy at the prospect of coming violence. And the moderator just looked blankly at the camera and said "thanks for your call". I'd say that remark needed a followup question, no?

[mitsie]

08:37 AM on 08/12/2009

Yes, unfortunately none of the MSM are doing their jobs.

[epiphany1234]

07:22 AM on 08/12/2009

It's hard to sympathize with people objecting to IMPROVEMENTS in their health care.

They are clearly the stupidest of the stupid.

[bud812]

06:48 AM on 08/12/2009

As an american i appreciate freedom of speech but i also have a low tollerance for stupidity!These people i have seen raising thier voices is fine to a point but they really have nothing of importance to say.Seems like a bunch of angry white folks who dont particularly like a black president is all i can fathom.As bad as i hate to say it we will probably have to rely on our children to fix things as i think they are more repectful of others than the generations before them.These old white under educated people and thier children [the baby boomers] really are standing in the way of the changes we voted for and they seem to all be pretty old school on many of our current issues.As a white guy i personally cant wait till we are the minority weve had our time and look what weve done with it.

[mitsie]

08:38 AM on 08/12/2009

Great post

[epiphany1234]

06:04 AM on 08/12/2009

Once the smart people have moved into the public plan, the private industry will still need prey to pick over, screw, then suck dry.

These fools are the perfect candidates.

They too stupid to know better anyway.

[epiphany1234]

05:36 AM on 08/12/2009

I'm curious that no minorities (blacks, Asians or Latinos) are seen at these town hall meetings objecting to the health care reform.

What do they know that these other angry, pissed off people don't get?

[sueinmn]

07:57 AM on 08/12/2009

They are smart enough to know which side of the bread gets buttered.

[Deschris]

08:12 AM on 08/12/2009

Perfect.I made this observation several blogs ago.Let's add the middle class,gays,poor whites and single parents(men and women).By the way,I stress poor whites,because I do not want to make the need for real reform applicable to these groups only.All the groups listed in your blog and mine,the majority of americans,voted for change and we have a few republican thugs and the insurance companies taking over the show.

[mitsie]

08:40 AM on 08/12/2009

I would like to add, that there are many white senior citizens who agree with you also, and I am one of them. The majority of seniors in our senior apartment complex also agree with us. The quiet majority out here are really fed up with these people.

[DanteLabon]

03:54 AM on 08/12/2009

Come on guys, let's get this idea out there to the c r a z y ' s. They have tea-baggin' parties (hehehe), and gangs at town hall meetings, so let's HELP them to organize Card Burning Parties. They hate socialism SOOOO much, it should not be too hard to get them together to burn their Social Security card and their Medicare card....heck their Library card too for that matter...and their kid's public school ID card....after all, they are socialist too. Just think of the benefits...and the money the country would save. Yeah, THEN we'd see how much they hate socialism.

[Mij13]

04:27 AM on 08/12/2009

Excellent idea!

[Christschool]

04:51 AM on 08/12/2009

Dante that's a good start. But they should also burn their car registrations, no more free loading on state and federal highways, those darn socialist roads you know. No electricity either, since it was the "socialists" that created the electric grid in the US. No computer use either since it was the government that created and funded the research into computers and the internet. No public universities for these people either. They should also take down their mailboxes and no longer receive mail. Think of all the "freedom" they would have, to live in a shack, with no car, no mail and no electricity.

[LifeIsBrief]

07:48 AM on 08/12/2009

You've described the Unabomber!

[frixx]

12:57 PM on 08/12/2009

You've basically described the new American Taliban.