| Wednesday, February 01, 2006 |
| When you're wrong, you're wrong |
This happens from time to time in the informal as well as the formal media biz. Sometimes you're just plain wrong. And when that happens, the best thing to do is admit it. So here it is:
My initial, gut reaction to hearing about Cindy Sheehan's arrest was to assume that she had pulled some antic to get herself bounced from the Capitol gallery before the president's State of the Union speech began. And because I guess I've just grown weary of the woman -- from her seeming mission creep (including her adventures in Venezuela,) to her would-be run for office -- my reaction was quite negative toward her, including in this podcast...
Well folks, I'm not even going to mince words. I was wrong.
Here was the original AP story:
Sheehan, who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke
Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.
Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own recognizance, Schneider said. And this is the AP story today:
WASHINGTON - Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.
“The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol,” Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.
“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.” ...
...“Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts,” Gainer’s statement said. In other words, this wasn't a case of Sheehan unfurling her offending shirt, launching into a protest and having to be hauled out of the place, it was just another day in the life of the presidential bubble, in which rule number one is that Mr. Bush is not to have his delicate eyes offended by less than obsequious candor.
In fact, the Capitol police are apologizing now, not because of Ms. Sheehan per se, but because the zeal that was pumped into the dissent hunters inside that gallery led the cops to make the suppression of free expression bi-partisan.
Ms. Sheehan was arrested on Tuesday solely because of what she was wearing: namely, a T-shirt containing the number 2245: the number of American troops killed so far in Iraq. Troops like Ms. Sheehan's son, Casey. Sheehan was on Randi Rhodes' show this evening and she explained what happened when, as a guest of a California congresswoman, she took her seat in the gallery, then about fifteen minutes later, took off her jacket, revealing the shirt. The Capitol Police, who were apparently on the lookout for her, over-reacted, to put it mildly. Someone yelled "protester!" and they grabbed Sheehan, handcuffed her, and literally manhandled her out of the place, before her T-shirt could spoil the view of the president.
But also inside that gallery was the wife of Florida Republican congressman Bill Young, wearing a shirt that read "support the troops." She was escorted out too (but not in handcuffs), prompting her husband to launch into a teary tirade on the House floor today. Also ejected: a constituent of Florida Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings, who was ushered out of the place for unknown reasons as well. But none of the others were man-handled, bullied or arrested. Only Cindy Sheehan. Those are facts that should not be glossed over, and I did just that.
And you know, it wouldn't be so bad if this president's team didn't have a long, nasty history of cleansing his surroundings of opposing views; from hauling other people off to jail for displaying anti-Bush or anti-war bumper stickers or T-shirts at or near Bush rallies, or making American citizens attending supposed town hall meetings with their president sign Midieval-style loyalty oaths to Mr. Bush before they can get a ticket, or staging potemkin round tables with hand-picked audiences -- including hand-picked military audiences -- so that Bush can appear on television to have unified and universal support from the American people.
It's pretty sick. Hell, it's pretty damned Soviet. Not to mention the fact that to paraphrase Randi Rhodes tonight, if Bush's arguments can't stand up to a T-shirt, then he should seriously rethink his positions. And while this time, the bad actors were the Capitol police, purportedly non-partisan, although with this crowd, I wouldn't be surprised if they were "cleansed" and restocked with Bush campaign workers at some stage in the game, they were obviously acting on a BOLO alert ("be on the lookout for protesters -- especially Sheehan...") handed down to them by Team Bush.
Anyway, the Capitol police have apologized (most profusely to the Congressman's wife, but there you go... though the GOP congressman appears not to accept...) and well they should, although apparently the newly extended (for six weeks) Patriot Act is set to give the Secret Service near-unlimited powers to do stuff like this:
Fox News says a new provision slipped into the Patriot Act by Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, would give the Secret Service virtually unchecked authority to make felony arrests of demonstrators inside a security perimeter at any "special event of national significance,'' even when the star of the show -- like Bush or Cheney -- isn't present. This would apply at any designated ``National Security Special Events,'' even when the president is dead [Ronald Reagan's funeral procession] or not there [the Super Bowl.] What as once ranked as misdemeanor trespassing would be elevated to a federal felony. This is on top of FAA flight restrictions dictating that private pilots can't fly above Cheney's new Chesapeake Bay neighborhood even when the VP isn't home. -- Patt Morrison for the HuffPo As for your friendly neighborhood blogger, I say without reservation, Ms. Sheehan: this time you were right. What happened to you was a crime against the very notion of democratic freedom (and ironically, one that took place while the president was crowing about democracy and freedom, having mentioned them nine and 15 times in his speech, respectively.
... that said, you gotta admit the "Chugo Havez" thing was pretty freaking funny...
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Tags: Bush, State of the Union, Speech, Politics,Cindy Sheehan |
posted by JReid @ 11:43 PM   |
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