Union members protest Leggett's benefits cuts

Hundreds of public employee union members marched into Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett’s office Thursday, protesting his proposal to limit their health care and pension benefits in closing a $300 million shortfall in the wealthy Washington suburb. “Come on out Ike; get off your golden toilet,” they shouted over cow bells, carrying most-wanted posters picturing the county leader and yelling names not suitable for print. Others outside the building brought goats — or scapegoats, as union members called them — and accused the county executive of balancing the budget on the backs of already-squeezed employees.

But Leggett wasn’t in the building or didn’t care to meet the boisterous crowd of a few hundred union members.