The three Denver residents (Alex Young, Karen Bauer, and Leslie Weise) who were removed from a presidential event because one of them drove a car with a liberal bumper sticker are not taking this outrage lightly. Yesterday, Dan Recht, the attorney representing the Denver Three, asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the matter. (Recht probably shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for a response.)
We know that it was a Republican staffer who escorted these three out of the event, but there are still some important details that haven’t been addressed. In particular, the staffer was apparently wearing an earpiece and a lapel pin on his suit. Was this a Republican thug misrepresenting himself as a Secret Service agent? (If so, it’s illegal.)
For that matter, Recht has learned that the Secret Service has identified and interviewed the staffer in question, but won’t say who it is. Recht has a few questions.
“We don’t know the person’s name, whether that person works for the national Republican party or the local Republican party. We don’t know who trained that person, we don’t know who paid that person, we don’t know what affiliation that person has and we have a right to know those things,” says Recht.
Those are all good questions, but I’m particularly interested in the “training” element. Who told this thug to look out for liberal bumper stickers? Who provided him with an official-looking earpiece? Was this guy paid with tax dollars? If not, who did pay him? Is there a written policy for evicting law-abiding ticket-holders? If so, who wrote it?
I think it’s safe to say this controversy isn’t going away anytime soon.