Town Hall Tumult
The forum was on aging, but while speakers tried to stick to the topic at hand they were often interrupted by yells from audience members who wanted to shift the focus to health care.
“This isn't even close to civil,” said Steve Belosi, 52. "The rudeness was beyond compare.”
Baird avoids protests with telephone town ha
Congressman Brian Baird, a Democrat from Vancouver, has been getting a lot of publicity this week for announcing that he would be foregoing in-person gatherings with constituents for telephonic town halls over the August recess.
The reason, as he explained to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, is because he didn't want to "create a venue where people can purposely intimidate other members of the community who want to be heard."
Castor heartened by reaction to town hall tumult
As the national debate over health care reform becomes incandescent, members of Congress may be backing off from holding town hall discussions on the issue after several have dissolved into mayhem.
Castor, like some other members of Congress, said she planned a telephone event because she can reach more people that way.
Reps. Adam Putnam of Bartow, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Weston and Ron Klein of Boca Raton all plan to hold telephone town halls on the issue, according to their staff.
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