A remarkable scene has developed at a telemarketing call center in Indiana, where three dozen workers have walked off the job rather than read McCain campaign call scripts full of misleading statements about Barack Obama:

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being “dangerously weak on crime,” “coddling criminals,” and for voting against “protecting children from danger.”

Williams’ daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it’s located in Hobart, IN.

“They walked out,” Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren’t fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. “They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you’re not gonna get paid for the rest of the day.”

The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. “It was like at least 40 people,” the daughter said. “People thought the script was nasty and they didn’t wanna read it.”

A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that “at least 30” workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.

“We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger,” this worker said. “I wouldn’t do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting.”

These call center workers are not the first to refuse to broadcast McCain’s smears — Chaylee Cole, an 18-year-old student and part-time call center worker in West Virginia, was fired for refusing to read what she believed was an unethical McCain script:

Cole insists that her decision about the call wasn’t about politics. “I was uncomfortable reading it,” she says. “I didn’t know if it was true. I wouldn’t have done it if it was anti-McCain either. Everything about it was wrong.” She told the Charleston newspaper that she was also worried about the fact that she didn’t know who might be answering the phone when she called, and was especially concerned that she might be delivering her message to a child or an elderly person. Her bosses gave her a choice, she said: Read it, or go home — without pay.

And another call center worker, Tom Zoromski of Middleton, Wisconsin, walked off the job rather than read the offensive scripts:

Following is the script of a robocall being sent to voters in Wisconsin:

“Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500.”

Zoromski said, “This was different than I was told I was going to be saying, and [Sitel] said the script changes on a daily basis.”

So Zoromski quit, fed up with what he perceived as scare tactics.

There are lines that John McCain may be willing to cross. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of America is willing to cross them with him.