Saturday, April 23, 2005
MBF watch: Which Republican "volunteer" ejected the Denver Three?
Those "overzealous volunteers"! The Republicans are so plagued with them! After all, it was an overzealous volunteer in Fargo, ND, who made sure no Democrats were invited to Bush's Social Security phase-out Partei rally there, and he was.... Was... Well, nothing did happen to him, did it? Still, now that Bush has made his rallies explicitly invitation-only Republican events—which all taxpayers should not be just happy, but grateful, to support—
You know, now that I read the whole story, I really think that we could be doing the Republicans an injustice on this one.
After all, it isn't like they've set up a privatized paramilitary force of "volunteers" controlled from the White House, or anything like that.
Right?
UPDATE Orcinus points out how the wingers have successfully tranmitted vigilantism into the mainstream, through their "coverage" for the "Minutemen" project.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating whether a Republican volunteer committed the crime of impersonating a federal agent while forcibly removing three people from one of President Bush's [cough] public Social Security events, according to people familiar with the probe.
The Secret Service knows the man's name, one of the people familiar with the probe said, and has interviewed him. Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin refused to comment for this article.
In the Denver case, Alex Young, 25; Karen Bauer, 38; and Leslie Weise, 39, say they were forced out even though they never verbally protested or displayed anti-Bush shirts or signs. The White House has not disputed this.
When they were entering, they were pulled them aside and told to wait for the Secret Service, Young said. A few minutes later, a man who refused to identify himself warned they would be arrested if they staged any protests. They were allowed to take seats, only to be forced out without explanation about 20 minutes later. The man, who Young described as muscular, about 30, with close-cropped hair, again refused to provide his name or affiliation. A local Secret Service agent told a lawyer representing the three they were targeted because of the bumper sticker.
(via WaPo)
You know, now that I read the whole story, I really think that we could be doing the Republicans an injustice on this one.
After all, it isn't like they've set up a privatized paramilitary force of "volunteers" controlled from the White House, or anything like that.
Right?
UPDATE Orcinus points out how the wingers have successfully tranmitted vigilantism into the mainstream, through their "coverage" for the "Minutemen" project.
