Two items on National Review’s Corner and vapid observations by Miles O’Brien this morning.
Byron York forwards this from the always incendiary Democratic Congressman Pete Stark of California:
Some other members were upset about Sheehan’s arrest. “I’m still trying to find out why the president’s Gestapo had to arrest Cindy Sheehan in the gallery. … It shows he still has a thin skin,” said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont.
He later passes this reminder from FreeRepublic.com of an incident in 1999 during the Clinton impeachment trial:
WASHINGTON A Pennsylvania school teacher was yanked out of a VIP Senate gallery and briefly detained last week during the impeachment trial for wearing a T-shirt with graphic language dissing President Clinton.
Dave Delp, 42, of Carlisle, Pa., and a friend had just settled into their seats last Saturday when four Capitol security guards approached them. Delp said yesterday he was ordered to button his coat and follow the guards. Outside the chamber, he was told “several people felt threatened by your shirt,” which said, “Bill Doesn’t Inhale He Just S—s.”
Even after establishing that Delp was a guest of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), the guards wouldn’t let him back in and escorted him to a basement security area, where they questioned and photographed him.
After being given one of the photos as a souvenir, Delp said he was banned from the Capitol for the rest of the day. “They were polite and professional,” Delp added, “but they really did scare me. I think I should have been given the chance to cover up.”
Capitol police declined to comment.
Point is no disruptive banners, slogans, tshirts, posters, etc. are ever allowed in the galleries of the Capitol chambers. Period. I sat in for a while on a Senate session and was instructed there was to be no note taking, recording, writing, etc. Just sit there and watch. CNN’s vapid morning anchor Miles O’Brien would do well to take a Capitol tour with an 8th grade American History class (If they do such things anymore, given our current state of public schools). He might learn there are procedures and rules of decorum in the Capital. It’s not a mob-rule zone where such things as done by Sheehan are simply free speech.
His only source for his reporting on the incident this morning seemed to be Sheehan’s writings on Michael Moore.com. When his account of what happened regarding her arrest was countered by his co-anchor, Soledad O’Brien, he retorted, “That’s not what Sheehan said happened.”
Well d’uh! Does he think his source might be a bit biased? In the time that elapsed from last night till this morning, could he have had at least one intern do a bit of research for him on the events that took place, some background on the rules of the House, any historical records of such a thing happening in the past?
Christ, man, journo 101!
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1 Balanced News Blog » Blog Archive » Cindy Sheehan Arrested at State of the Union Address // Feb 1, 2006 at
[...] Police escorted Sheehan from the visitors’ gallery above the House chamber after causing a disruption, said a Capitol Police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the incident were sketchy. [...]
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