Finally the RWCM picks up this story. But note that this is Knight-Ridder, not AP, Reuters, USA Today or (as if!) NPR:
Bush critics blocked from presidential events
Tue Mar 29, 7:16 PM ET
By Ron Hutcheson, Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Some of President Bush's supporters seem to be going overboard in their efforts to stifle dissent when he comes to town to talk about changing Social Security.
In Denver, three people say they were booted out of a presidential event last week even though they never uttered a peep, apparently because their car bore a bumper sticker denouncing the war in Iraq.
(more below)
In Fargo, N.D., last month, local Republicans developed a blacklist of more than three dozen residents, including a city commissioner, who were to be banned from Bush's visit.
Now hold on to something firmly planted in the ground before you read the following 'graph . . .
White House officials say they have nothing to do with the exclusions, which they blame on overzealous supporters.
Have you stopped screaming, yet? Of course, "White House officials," well aware of this crap, haven't denounced it, made sure the Secret Service and local police officials made sure this had to stop, nor sent any memos to state and local GOP leaders telling them to call off their dogs, either!
"We welcome a diversity of views at the events," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday, although in fact participants at the events are carefully screened and dissenting voices are rare.
There was no welcome mat for Alex Young and his two companions when they showed up to see Bush on March 21 in Denver. Bush was there for one of a series of "conversations" about his plan to change Social Security.
Young and his friends, Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise, had barely gotten in the door before they were unceremoniously shown the exit by a man who refused to explain his actions. They thought he was a Secret Service agent because he had an earpiece and an official-looking lapel pin.
Young said he was later told by Secret Service officials that he and his friends had been ejected by a local Republican volunteer who'd been spurred to action by the bumper sticker on their car: "No More Blood for Oil."
"The thing that set them off was the bumper sticker," Young said in a telephone interview. "It was completely unprovoked. ... The whole time he was really pushing and shoving me. We were never told that only Republicans were invited."
Complaints about tight restrictions at Bush's events have become common. His presidential campaign used tight crowd-control screens last fall, and similar tactics now seem to be employed at official presidential stops, which unlike campaign events are paid for by taxpayers' dollars.
During Bush's Feb. 3 visit to Fargo, the local newspaper published a list of about 40 local residents who were supposed to be barred from the White House-sponsored event. City Commissioner Linda Coates, a Democrat, was on the list, along with her husband, Mike, but she got in anyway. . .
There's more. Go RIGHT NOW to the Yahoo! homepage. It's on the front. Rate it up.
BenGoshi
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