WASHINGTON – Before President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday night on health care, Republicans countered with a bit of street theater – using an ambulance to deliver petitions from Americans who reject the Democratic version of reform.

"We don't want our health care hijacked," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, one of a dozen or so GOP lawmakers to take delivery of 1.3 million petition signatures that echo the protests at congressional town hall meetings this summer.

The petition drive was launched in May by the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based conservative think tank, and the conservative Salem Radio Network. Dallas-based Mike Gallagher was among the talk show hosts at the event outside the Capitol, hours before Obama arrived.

Dallas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, a member of the House GOP leadership, said the public strongly opposes a heavy government hand in the health delivery system.

After the ambulance parked, two burly men loaded boxes of petitions onto a gurney and rolled it in front of a stage strategically placed with the Capitol as backdrop.

Todd J. Gillman