Below The Beltway

Virginia Congressman Jim Moran held a Town Hall in Reston last night and, not surprisingly, it was a pretty raucous night:

A raucous crowd of about 2,500 people jammed a high school gymnasium in Reston on Tuesday night to hear U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. offer a robust defense of Democratic efforts to reform health care.

Several hundred other people crowded outside South Lakes High School, barred from entering the full town hall meeting, where seating was first come, first served. Accompanied by physician and former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Moran (D-Va.) told the crowd that he thinks reform efforts must include a public option.

Moran called the public option the piece of reform that “could do the most to bring down long-term medical costs and to adequately insure every American.”

“Everyone is still free to purchase private insurance,” he said. “The private insurance companies, we think, will want to be more competitive, and so insurance premiums will probably go down, hopefully to the point where they don’t rise anymore.”

Groups on both sides of the health-care debate had urged supporters to attend the Northern Virginia event because of Dean’s guest appearance. Unlike at many town hall meetings that have received attention across the country, the crowd in the Democratic-leaning district was dominated by reform proponents, many carrying signs distributed by President Obama’s political action group Organizing for America. “Standing Together for Health Care Reform,” the signs read.

But there were hundreds of opponents, and they were often equally vocal. Several attendees waved yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. Moran and Dean pushed through their remarks, often talking over a dull roar of supportive cheers or angry protests.

At times, the atmosphere in the gymnasium took on the air of a pep rally. Before Moran arrived, the two sides took up competitive cheering, with opponents shouting “We can’t afford it!” and supporters shouting back, “Yes, we can!”

Fellow Virginia blogger and new author Leslie Carbone was there and offered her own observations:

[T]he encounters I had last night were a window into the uncritical mentality that we’re up against. If the liberals I talked to, and the ones carrying signs and chanting slogans, are representative, then we’re up against something even more insidious than whining, than the notion that rights are a product of available technology, than the assumption of entitlement to what someone else has created, than the willingness to sacrifice human dignity to the infantile desire to be coddled. We’re up against an unawareness that ideas have to be rooted in something, that conclusions have to be derived logically, that truth matters.

Last night was a reaffirmation that conservatives need to reacquaint ourselves and our fellow Americans with the ideas and principles that work. Ideas matter, and it’s the responsibility of those of us who understand that to make sure that the right ones are heard.

And, Smitty, The Other McCain’s co-blogger, was there too:

Overall, I’m terrified. The righteousness of destroying liberty in the name of health care was a religious affirmation for the supporters. Down the road, we have to drive for something like the Federalism Amendment, and we may have to push for a historically unprecedented Article V suppository to plug the sucking pelvis wound marked by the Beltway.

You can watch video of the entire town hall here, and judge for yourself.