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Betty, my husband and I have houseguests for three weeks – a ‘pen pal’ from England to whom I have been writing since we were both ten years old, her husband, and their seventeen-year-old son.

The five of us attended Arlen Specter’s town hall meeting in Lebanon, PA this morning.

We arrived at the college at 7:45 AM and the doors opened at 9:00. We were fortunate enough to be among the first 250 people because that was the hall’s limit. More people were turned away than were allowed to enter. (I would estimate that there were close to six hundred people in line.)

We of course were prepared with several questions to ask the dishonorable Mr. Specter, but upon being seated the audience was told that thirty ‘random’ people had each been handed a card with a number on it and only those thirty would be allowed to ask questions.

Needless to say, that announcement did not go over well with the crowd, and most of us suspected that the ‘chosen thirty’ were probably hand-picked Specter supporters, but that turned out not to be the case.

I would say that all but two or three of the questioners were very well informed – with a handful of them asserting that they had read H.R. 3200 in its entirety -- and they posed very astute questions and provided excellent insights into this legislative monstrosity.

Only one of the thirty questioners was in favor of the proposed ‘reform’ bill, and, although she was treated with respect by the crowd, she did not receive any real support.

Senator Specter was – to put it bluntly – pathetic. He simply kept repeating the same, tired talking points, namely:

(1) I will not vote for a bill that expands the federal deficit, and the current bill under consideration in the house does not

(2) All citizens will be able to keep their current private insurance, if they are happy with it

(3) The government will see to it that we save on healthcare by requiring preventive medicine, and by eliminating Medicare and Medicaid fraud

Needless to say, all three oft-repeated talking points were met with derision, and contrary, fact-based arguments from the floor.

He made an attempt to answer perhaps eighty percent of the questions – generally with only four or five sentences, and sometimes with replies that bore no resemblance to the question. And occasionally he would listen to a longer question/comment, shake his head, and simply ask for the next questioner. He was most definitely not interested in genuine input from his conservative constituents.

One questioner said that he would like to see this healthcare issue put to referendum. Specter feigned interest in such a thing and responded, ‘I’ll have to give that some serious thought and take the idea back to Washington with me.’

The audience saw through his ‘representative’ façade and laughed heartily at that insincerity.

The largest and loudest responses from the audience came when he asserted (1) that the majority of Americans are in favor of a single-payer system, and (2) that he is dedicated the remaining true to the Constitution. After both comments, the audience reacted with utter disbelief and disgust.

Even though we were not able to pose our questions, those questions we would have asked were covered by the other questioners, and many of them quoted directly – page, paragraph and line – from the house bill. To be blunt, Specter seemed a mental midget compared to the majority of his questioners, and seemed to know significantly less about the legislation being considered than most in the audience. He kept repeating that the senate does not yet have a bill in place, as if that were an excuse for him to be entirely unaware of the contents of the house bill.

He also pleaded ignorance regarding the paragraph on the White House website that is encouraging Americans to ‘snitch’ on their countrymen who are reporting ‘fishy’ information on the president’s plan. Either he is woefully uninformed, or he did not want to admit to knowing about that particular travesty.

As we were leaving, our English friends commented, ‘I don’t believe he answered one single question. He appears to be very adept at avoiding rational explanations – quite an escape artist.’ They were absolutely astounded at his tap dancing agility.

Looking very much forward to hearing whether your experience was similar, dear betty!

~ joanie