Eric Withee and Steve DeMartini are similar in that they are both young men with strong political beliefs. Both were at Congressman Brian Baird’s Longview Town Hall meeting Wednesday night with organized campaign groups and both initially didn’t want to give their names and instead referred reporters to “national headquarters.”

But the similarities between the men ended there.

DeMartini, a California native now working with the LaRouche Political Action Committee in Seattle, was on hand with posters of President Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache, and a pamphlet with Obama superimposed into a photo with the Nazi leader. He likened proposed health care reform to Nazi policies of the late 1930s as he stood in the sweltering sun handing out his materials and answering questions.

“I want to save the nation,” he said.

Withee, of Washougal, stood a few feet away at the Organizing for America table. He asked people to sign a petition supporting health care reform that includes a public option, handed out stickers and distributed his own pamphlets.

“I believe if we have a good, open discourse about the health care system we’ll be able to change direction and secure health care for our future,” he said as DeMartini chatted with residents a few feet away.

Such was the scene during Wednesday’s meeting, with many strong beliefs but few actual clashes or the ugliness seen at other town halls throughout the country.

More than 800 people gathered at the Cowlitz County Expo and Conference Center to hear Baird take questions, mostly on health care. Several commented on how well the meeting was going after national news clips of contentious meetings elsewhere. (Just in case, though, 10 police officers lined the walls inside the meeting and several more patrolled the halls and main entrance).

“This is how it should be,” Baird said after two hours of questions and discussion, which included both boos and cheers. “I wish the national media would cover this type of meeting. They’ll cover a fist fight but they won’t cover this.”

While the meeting remained mostly civil, people still disagreed.

And older woman holding a “Medicare Yes, Obamacare No” sign got into a verbal sparring match with another Organizing for America volunteer. Neither woman would give their name.

“I’m not as bright as you but I have a little bit of years on you and when you have to pay for everyone else’s (medical costs) we’ll see how you like it,” the older woman said outside the building after Baird had started speaking.

“My generation will be paying for it,” the young woman replied. “And I’m willing to do it to help my fellow citizens.”

Inside, veteran Carla Baker of Olympia said she’d supported some of Baird’s stances before but would vote against him if he didn’t turn around on health care reform.

“I’m having a Joe the Plumber moment,” Baker said in the hallway before the meeting started. “I in no way believe government knows what’s right for me … And if Baird and the rest of Congress ignore the will of the people I consider it my sworn duty to defeat him.”

Longview’s Lynn Bonneau, though, was there as a veteran to support Baird, saying the Congressman helped iron out problems with Bonneau’s Veterans Administration benefits.

Bonneau said he still needs to learn more about the proposed reforms but said “the American taxpayers should be covered with insurance and it shouldn’t cost them an arm and a leg.”

The most tense moment of the night came when Anastasia Mares, another LaRouche volunteer, asked the final question and called the proposed health care reform a “Nazi” policy. Her comments about other LaRouche initiatives drew grumbles and even mocking laughter from the crowd. Baird said he wasn’t familiar with some of the programs she spoke about and then spent much of his response addressing her word choice.

“I’ve personally apologized,” for using the term “brown shirts” to describe people disrupting meetings elsewhere, Baird told Mares. “And when people on the left called George Bush a fascist I said ‘No he’s not.’ … I ask that we all try to refrain from this on all sides. I ask that you respect people, even if you’re mad at them.”

After the meeting, though, Mares wasn’t deterred, again using “Nazi” and likening health care reform to “Hitler’s health care policy.”

As for Baird’s comments about language and name calling?

“It’s bull—,” Mares said as she walked out of the meeting room.