Protesters turn Health Care Town Hall into a "wrestling cage match"

People passionate about politics and fiercely devoted to their causes can sometimes clash, degenerating to a sideshow reminiscent of wrestling.

Protesters in Ybor City drown out health care summit on Obama's proposal
TAMPA — Bitter divisions over reforming America's health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting...

"There is more consensus than there is disagreement when you get right down to it,' Castor offered, immediately drowned out by groans and boos...

The spectacle at the Children's Board in Ybor City sounded more like a wrestling cage match than a panel discussion on national policy, and it was just the latest example of a health care meeting disrupted by livid protesters. Similar scenes are likely to be repeated across the country as lawmakers head to their home districts for the summer recess.

Mark Shields on his weekly discussion on PBS Newshour makes a similar assessment of the Protest movement over healthcare

Health Reform Push, Clinton's N. Korea Trip Top Week's News
JUDY WOODRUFF: So what's the effect on health care reform? Is there any effect? Does it just stop the debate or...

MARK SHIELDS: Well, it changes the whole debate. I mean, the coverage. I mean, Betty Ann, who's done great coverage about the case, pro and con, for the proposals, you know, she's reduced to being a fight reporter, you know, and interviewing the people on either side, I mean, not reduced to that, but, I mean, that's the story. And so the story is now about the protests instead of about the proposals.

Learn more about the passionate divide on health care reform and the protest movement that has informed and forcefully shaped the debate - Doctors Consider Health Care Possibilities as White House Pushes Reform

- Go to an archive of the aforementioned Betty Ann Bowser's coverage on Health Care
- Go to PBS Newshour's page on Health Care Reform - Rx for Reform