Democrats Planning Disruption of Health Forums, GOP Alleges

House Republicans complained to President Clinton on Thursday that “political operatives” of the Democratic National Committee were planning to disrupt dozens of GOP-sponsored health care forums scheduled for Saturday.

Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) released a copy of a memorandum in which the coordinator of the DNC’s National Health Care Campaign, Heather Booth, urged campaign workers to attend the sessions in large numbers, wear buttons, wave signs in support of the President’s health care reform plan and ask a series of DNC-suggested questions aimed at “countering misinformation.”

However, DNC spokeswoman Kiki Moore insisted that the committee was merely encouraging supporters of the President’s proposal to participate in what she described as “a good opportunity for members of Congress to hear from their constituents.”

Moore said the tactics urged by the DNC were nothing out of the ordinary for such events, which lawmakers routinely hold in their districts to discuss major issues. Fifty-three GOP sessions are now scheduled in 24 states.

“In no way have we encouraged people to create a disruption,” Moore said.

The DNC memo suggested that the principal purpose of the Republican meetings was “to attack the health security plan.” In their news release announcing the schedule for the forums, House Republicans described the Clinton plan as a “bureaucratic nightmare,” and indicated that they would use the forums to air their criticisms of the White House proposal.

“It is unseemly for your party to politicize these events and to suggest that Republicans in Congress would use them to ‘spread misinformation’ that must then be ‘corrected’ by your partisans in the office,” a group of House GOP leaders wrote to Clinton. “We would respectfully request that you reject such tactics on the part of your National Health Care Campaign, and disavow their characterization of our holding town meetings in our districts as an effort to spread misinformation.”

The letter was signed by Armey, House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) and Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).