McCain campaign adopts Bush's respect for free expression

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

 
One of the hallmarks of events at which George Bush appeared was the
complete elimination of any dissent. In one of the most notorious cases, three individuals who arrived at a 2005
Bush town hall meeting in Denver with an anti-war bumper sticker on their car
and anti-Bush t-shirts underneath their clothing were first threatened with
removal before they sat down and then, 20 minutes later, were forcibly removed
despite not having uttered a word. Numerous other cases of that kind have been documented,
where perfectly well-behaved individuals were barred, removed and even arrested at Bush speeches, including
taxpayer-funded events, exclusively for holding signs or wearing clothing that
were critical of the Leader or his policies.
At the center of this dissent-suppressive policy was Gregory Jenkins, the
former deputy assistant to President Bush and White House director of advance,
as well as a former Fox News producer. Jenkins was sued by the ACLU for his
role in the removal of the Denver
attendees and in several other cases. Bush officials originally denied any role
in this conduct, but a Presidential Advance Manual for which Jenkins was
responsible uncovered by the ACLU explicitly instructed event workers
on when and how "to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event"
and "calls for Bush volunteers to distribute tickets in a manner to deter
protesters and to stop demonstrators from entering." As the ACLU put it:

The American Civil Liberties Union national office today
filed a federal lawsuit against a former high-level White House staffer for
enacting a policy that unlawfully excluded individuals perceived to be critical
of the administration from public events where President Bush was present. The
policy is laid out in an October 2002 "Presidential Advance Manual"
obtained by the ACLU. . . .
The ACLU is suing Gregory Jenkins, former Director of the White House Office
of Presidential Advance and a Deputy Assistant to President Bush for setting
the policy in the manual. Jenkins' policies have led to the removal and, in
some cases, arrest of innocent people from taxpayer-funded events.

One of the lawsuits brought against Jenkins -- Rank v.
Jenkins, brought by the ACLU on behalf of two Texas citizens who "were
arrested for trespassing, handcuffed, and hauled away in a police van" on
the West Virginia State Capitol ground when trying to attend a Bush July 4
speech wearing anti-war and anti-Bush t-shirts -- ended with a settlement under which the Government paid
them $80,000.
Earlier this month, the same Greg Jenkins joined the McCain campaign to oversee the campaign's
advance planning:

Perhaps most important for the campaign's image is the
addition of Greg Jenkins, a veteran advance man who ran presidential advance in
the Bush White House. Jenkins, also an aide on Bush's 2000 campaign, is working
to ensure better stagecraft of McCain's events and to avoid a reprisal
of the much-mocked green background behind McCain at a high-profile speech last
month.

That move was part of what The New York Times called "the elevation of
Steve Schmidt -- who worked closely with Karl Rove," and noted that
Jenkins is "another veteran of Mr. Rove's operation."
The placement of Jenkins in charge of McCain campaign events is already
producing exactly the heavy-handed, dissent-suppressing tactics that were the
ugly hallmark of Bush events. Shortly after Jenkins joined the McCain campaign,
this is
what happened at a McCain speech, billed as being "open to the public" -- an event
which, ironically, also took place in Denver:

A 60-year-old librarian received a trespassing ticket today
after a liberal group's protest outside a John McCain town hall meeting Monday.
Clutching a sign that read "McCain = Bush," Carol Kreck was
removed from the atrium at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts by four Denver police officers.
Kreck, a former Denver Post reporter who works part-time as a librarian for
an education think tank, said she was removed as she quizzed a police officer
about whether he could deny her free speech "on city property" by
taking away her sign, while McCain supporters wore buttons inside.