Specter faces angry town hall meeting

LEBANON, Pa., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A frequently hostile crowd hurled questions about healthcare reform at U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., Tuesday at a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa.

About 300 attendees packed into a community college auditorium jeered plans by Specter's Democratic Party colleagues to cover uninsured Americans and bring health costs under control, while hundreds more protesters demonstrated outside the school and a national television audience watched, The Washington Post reported.

As Specter answered questions from about 30 attendees who mainly identified themselves as conservatives, one man, angry he wasn't called on, interrupted the lawmaker and yelled at him, drawing a response from Specter, "Do you want to be led out of here? You're welcome to go."

"You can do whatever the hell you please to do," the man said. "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 desserts. I'm leaving."

"You have awakened a sleeping giant," attendee Katy Abram, 35, of Lebanon, Pa., reportedly told Specter. "I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country."