Not real clear, who punched who.

Moran's town hall descends into chaos
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
August 26, 2009
(ANDREW HARNIK/EXAMINER)


Rep. Jim Moran's town hall meeting descended into chaos Tuesday night as protestors clashed -- in one case violently -- with supporters of a broad federal health care expansion, leading the 8th District Democrat to angrily seek to evict some of the loudest demonstrators.

Moran and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean addressed a crowd of at least 2,500 at South Lakes High School in Reston, weathering hours of catcalls and heckling mixed with shouts from supporters.

Outside, a spillover crowd of protestors and counter-protesters shouted slogans at each other. A man in a Cato Institute T-shirt scuffled with a man wearing an Obama T-shirt, punched him in the face, and was shortly after kicked off the property by police officers.

Police said they were seeking to avoid arrests to help keep the crowd under control.

Inside, the scene was just as raucous. Moran -- fuming that his introduction of Dean was met with jeers -- finally lost his temper with the crowd.

"There are hundreds of people in this gymnasium who can't hear [Dean] because of a handful of people," Moran said. "These folks are not from the 8th District, they don't really belong here, and I'm going to ask them to leave."

Moran is a supporter of the $1.6 trillion House health care bill that would create a new government health option. The bill, mired in disputes among Democratic factions, has proved a lightning rod in town hall meetings across America.

The meeting hosted by Moran contrasted sharply to a town hall in Springfield held by 11th District Democrat Gerry Connolly earlier in the day.

Connolly on Tuesday told hundreds of seniors at Springfield's Greenspring Retirement Community that he would oppose any health care measure that "in any way, shape or form does any harm to Medicare."

The more than 400-strong crowd -- made up largely of highly educated, white-collar retirees -- showed little of the outsized rage seen at other town hall meetings. Many, however, expressed deep skepticism over how a public health insurance plan would be paid for, given spiraling federal deficits, or how it would interfere with existing care.

The legislation before Congress "doesn't pass the smell test," said Katherine Featherstone, whose husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died last year. She worried that, under the federal program, she would have lost decision-making abilities over treatment and "some panel of bureaucrats would decide what his treatment would be and whether or not it was cost-effective."


wflook@washingtonexaminer.com

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