Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) fired back Tuesday at a raucous town hall audience that booed and jeered him for more than an hour.
Specter immediately tried to temper the rough crowd, which started booing him before the question-and-answer session even began, with the blunt warning: “If you want to stay in here, we’re not going to tolerate any demonstrations or booing. So, it’s up to you."
But minutes later during the senator’s response to a question on whether Americans would be able to maintain their private insurance under the Democratic health care proposal, a protester who was not selected to speak stood up, walked into the aisle and began shouting at him.
“Do you want to be led out of here?” the senator told the man, pointing at him. “You’re welcome to go.”
Specter then walked toward the heckler who was being pushed back toward his seat by another member of the crowd.
“Now wait a minute,” Specter shouted repeatedly into the microphone. “You want to leave? Leave.”
“I’m going to speak my mind before I leave, because your people told me I could,” the protester said once the room quieted down. “I called your office, and was told I could have the mike to speak. And then I was lied to because I came prepared to speak.”
“I’ll leave,” the protester said, as several police officers stood nearby. “And you can do whatever the hell you please to do. One day God’s going to stand before you, and he’s going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you’ll get your just deserts. I’m leaving.”
The man received loud applause and shouts of support as he walked out of the room.
Trying to regain control, Specter pleaded with the crowd “to figure out some way to have an orderly procedure.” And he tried to respond to the protester.
“When he says that I’m tramping on constitutional rights, I have to disagree with him,” said the senator, who switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party this year. “I’m encouraging constitutional rights. I’m encouraging constitutional rights by coming to Lebanon [Pa.] to talk to my constituents. I could be somewhere else. I don’t get [any] extra pay. I don’t have any requirement to be here.”
But Specter’s assertion that he was not required to attend the town hall was not received so well.
“You work for us!” shouted several members of the crowd. “You work for us!”
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