The Bush campaign’s drive to maintain loyal, hyper-partisan, always-adoring crowds for the president took yet another turn this week, as Republicans in Oregon decided to trade free tickets to a presidential event for some rank-and-file toil.
Want a ticket to see President Bush campaign in Oregon on Friday?
You’ll have to put in a few hours working on the campaign phone bank first.
Callers to the Republican Party in Portland were told yesterday that the only way to get tickets was to volunteer to come in and make calls touting Bush to swing voters.
A Bush aide later told reporters that this was probably some kind of mistake. But she couldn’t explain why it was happening in the first place, leading me to believe it was the official policy, not some kind of slip-up. (Indeed, the mistake was getting caught.)
As regular readers know, this is part of a disturbing pattern:
The campaign goes to great lengths to ensure events are open only to the most loyal fans.
On Vice President Cheney’s recent trip to New Mexico, residents were allowed in to hear his Albuquerque speech only if they signed a loyalty oath swearing they “endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States.[sic]”
In West Virginia, two protesters were dragged away from a July 4 event in cuffs for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts.
Fortunately, as my friend Peter Daou noticed, at least one local news outlet in Oregon seems to have gotten the picture.
Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?