By Alyse Knorr and Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson and his staff are hoping for polite dialogue at tonight’s town hall meeting in Clarkston. But they plan to have up to 20 police officers on hand in case things get testy.

Republicans and Democrats across the country are clashing over how best to discuss health care reform, with a string of recent town-hall meetings spiraling into shouting and, in some cases, shoving matches. Democrats have labeled the protestors as “Astroturf” (for fake grass roots) agitators, while Republicans accuse Democrats of ignoring legitimate dissent.

Tonight’s meeting in Clarkston is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. at Georgia Perimeter College. Andy Phelan, spokesman for Johnson, whose 4th District includes parts of DeKalb, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties, expects several hundred people to attend.

The meeting will be held at Georgia Perimeter’s Cole Auditorium, which seats 500. A video feed is set to broadcast into another auditorium that seats 250, but Phelan said Johnson’s staff is working on getting the feed sent to the college’s gym, which holds 1,000.

Entrance will be handled on a first-come, first-serve basis and signs will not be allowed into the meeting. Phelan said 90 minutes will be allotted for questions and answers.

“We have seen what’s been happening at other town halls and we’re going to do whatever we can to make this an open and fruitful dialogue,” Phelan said.

Between 15 and 20 Georgia Perimeter police officers will be on hand in case the crowd becomes unruly, Phelan said, and DeKalb police will be nearby to respond if a situation arises.

For comparison, Phelan said five officers were requested for a public meeting last month on radio legislation.

In addition to the increased security, meeting ground rules will be passed out to attendees, and the moderator will state the rules at the beginning of the meeting. If crowd members become disruptive or rude, Phelan said.

A designated area for demonstrators will be set up outside.

“We really feel it’s our duty to get information out to the public about this extremely important legislation, and if folks are going to come there and shut the meeting down...we’re not going to be able to have the kind of dialogue we need to deal with this issue,” Phelan said.

Phelan said his office has already been receiving calls from people saying they aren’t going to attend the meeting because they think it will be another “town hall gone wild.”

“I think this is going to be one of the more interesting public meetings in the area,” Phelan said. “I think you’re going to see folks on both sides of the issue show up and I really feel like it’s going to be an interesting meeting and hopefully a productive one.”

Georgia hasn’t been immune to the increasingly contentious nature of the national health care debate.

A video of Georgia Democratic Rep. David Scott yelling at a local doctor during a public meeting in Douglasville on Aug. 1 has been circulating the Internet the past few days.

In the video, filmed by Douglasville officials, a doctor in the crowd asked Scott if he supports a government health care insurance option. Scott appeared to be annoyed by the question and accused the man of “hijacking” the event, which was supposed to focus on transportation issues.

“Not a single one of you had the decency to call my office and set up for a meeting,” Scott said. He went on, in a raised voice, “You want a meeting with me on health care, I’ll give it to you.”

Dr. Brian Hill, the doctor who asked the question, told WXIA-TV he lived in Scott’s district and called the congressman’s office repeatedly asking to speak with him. He also said he wasn’t one of the plants Democrats have accused insurance companies and lobbyists of sending to meetings.

Scott has another meeting planned, this time on health care, for Saturday in Jonesboro. Scott’s 13th congressional district includes parts of Cobb, Douglas, Henry and Clayton counties.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said some health care protests are “clearly being orchestrated” and denounced “screaming groups” from both sides as unhelpful.

“We need to respect free speech, but we need to respect one another’s rights to free speech, too,” Durbin said. “When these people come in just to disrupt the meetings, no, that isn’t right.”

On “Fox News Sunday,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called such complaints “absurd” and pointed out the Democratic National Committee’s own $8 million Organize America e-mail list.

“I think attacking citizens in our country for expressing their opinions about an issue of this magnitude may indicate some weakness in their position on the merits,” McConnell said.

For the most part, Democrats are drawing the crowds that include vociferous opponents of the White House’s proposals.

Last Thursday in Ybor, Fla., U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat and strong supporter of the proposal, left a town hall meeting after trying unsuccessfully to speak for about 15 minutes. The crowd drowned her out by chanting, “You work for us,’’ “Tyranny, tyranny,’’ and “Read the bill.” Some attendees got into scuffles and shoving matches, and videos of the meeting were played repeatedly on news broadcasts and the Internet.

By comparison, the atmosphere at most Republican meetings has been docile. About 60 people came to an Aug. 1 meeting in Mableton that featured Rep. Tom Price of the 6th District. A spokesman said that meeting was organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a group that staged tax rallies last winter and are behind many of the protests at town hall meetings on health care.

The staff of Rep. Jack Kingston, another Republican, had to quickly find a larger room for a town hall meeting at Valdosta State University earlier in the month. And even that space was not enough for the crowd.

In South Georgia, on the other hand, a growing crowd has gathered each of the past few Fridays for an hour outside the downtown Thomasville district office of Congressman Sanford Bishop to “rally against the health care bill,” said organizer Kimberly Wekert, a 43-year-old mother of three. People standing in the “freedom line” on the sidewalk in front of Bishop’s office wave homemade anti-health reform placards and ask for signatures on petitions that are eventually given to the congressman’s staff.

Bishop has four town hall meetings planned for Aug. 19 and 20 in his district.

Wekert said she started the weekly protests after attending a Tea Party Patriots meeting. She advertised the gatherings on her Facebook page. The first one attracted 20 people and within two weeks their numbers had increased to 106, she said.

“We are very peaceful. We’re there to get our point across in a peaceful manner,” Wekert said.

She conceded that sometimes exchanges get tense when the “freedom line” people encounter supporters of the president’s plan.

“They’re calling us organized GOP people and we’re not. We’re just everyday people,” Wekert said. “Nobody is paying us to picket. I am a Republican. I’m a conservative. I’m open-minded. I’m not so enchanted with Republicans that I believe everything they say. But I understand what big government is and what bad government is. And we haven’t seen good government in a long while.”