Helen Thomas on Pickles and The Protester-"Bush rallies are by invitation"

[Rose Siding]

snip>
In her protest, Niederer asked the first lady why her twin daughters weren't serving in Iraq -- as she later told reporters -- "if it's such a justified war."
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The first lady would have shown some class by telling the campaign aides to let her be. I've seen many first ladies in the past deal with protesters, including Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon during the height of the Vietnam War. Their political gatherings were not sanitized and screened for non-believers.

When anti-war demonstrators tried to disrupt Johnson's speeches, she would gently chide them, saying: "You have had your say, now let me have mine."

President Bush's political events are by invitation only. So are his phony press conference-style events -- "Ask President Bush," sometimes satirized in cartoons for the softball questions that fans ask him.

Scott Stanzel, press secretary to the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the president's political appearances are "ticketed events" and space is limited.
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When I asked Stanzel to cite the laws and regulations that bar freedom of speech or shouting at political rallies, he couldn't name any......

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192162_thomas24.html