Confrontation at health care rally

Austin (KXAN) - Health care is a hot button issue and many Austinites got to see how contentious it can be firsthand Sunday afternoon.

A fight broke out at a pep rally held by Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) between supporters and protestors.

"Mr. Doggett come talk to us," yelled protestors outside Austin's AFL-CIO building who were looking to talk face-to-face with the Congressman who voted for the plan.

Mr. Doggett, however, stayed inside with supporters, celebrating the passage of the hotly debated health care bill.

"The underlying concern here is a sort of a pep rally or a victory dance if you will over a federal health care bill that's clearly unconstitutional," said George Scraggs, a protestor.

 "He's [Doggett] voting his principle and we're telling him, 'know that we've got your back' and the people that put him in office want to say 'thank you,'" said Cindy Metcalf, a Doggett supporter.

It wasn't long before these stark differences in opinion reached a boiling point.

One Doggett supporter holding an "Organize America" sign got hustled away from the protest by a constable working security.

The woman said she was within her rights to get up close with protestors and even had fellow supporters come to her defense.

Health care opponents, however, said the woman attacked them and called for her to be arrested.

"I was attacked an the police are not doing anything," said Sherry Ellexson, a protestor.

Congressman Doggett dodged the crowds and went in the back door of the AFL-CIO building.

Even though he didn't witness the fight, he had a few words to say about it.

"I encourage respectful debate about this," explained Doggett.  "Some that we've had in Austin and Washington has not been particularly respectful."

Doggett, like many other House members, has been dogged with threats over the bill since the debate fired up last year.

He admitted he discounts many, but finds some alarming.

"We've received plenty of election threats. We've received a number of vitriolic calls that are not respectful," Doggett said.

Disrespect that was certainly evident in Sunday afternoon's fight, which punctuated a day that showed these are two sides that just can't seem to get along.

"I see that they're upset, I saw that one of the lady's flags got blown away and so I went to hand it back to her, she asked me not to touch her," said Veronica Puryear, a health care reform supporter.

Sunday's events highlighted that even basic, civil behavior is hard for these very opposed sides to muster up.

President Obama has one more final revision to sign off on later this week to make this controversial reform package the law of the land.