"Town Hall" Story Keeps Growing

[coloradodem2005]

This from the Rocky Mountain News:

Members of Congress from both parties on Thursday raised sharp questions about the exclusion of political opponents from two taxpayer-funded appearances by President Bush.

Three people were ejected from the president's Social Security town hall meeting in Denver March 21 after they arrived in a car with a "No more blood for oil" bumper sticker.

The Denver incident happened after a list was discovered in Fargo, N.D., naming 42 people to be barred from a Bush speech there in February attended by 8,000 people.

North Dakota's two Democratic senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, on Thursday jointly called for an investigation into the list. And the state's lone congressman, Democrat Earl Pomeroy, was quoted by the Fargo Forum as saying the list now appears to be standard operating procedure for the White House, rather than an isolated incident.

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http://coloradopoliticalnews.blogs.com/

[DesEtoiles]

1. I'm not buying the "safety" argument- if it's not safe keep Prez at WH

He should either see all of us or none of us. Either it's safe or it's not. If the Prez safety team makes the determination that the venue is safe enough for Prez to be there, then all taxpayers paying for the event should be allowed to attend without censorship based on political party or views.

[cestpaspossible]

2. It IS illegal, right?

To exclude citizens from a publicly funded event based on their exercise of their free speech rights?

[kevinmc]

3. These events are payed for by.......

all of the Taxpayers and should be open to all. If he is going to run them like his screened election rallies then "The Bush" needs to cough up the cash.

[ltfranklin]

4. Who sets things up?

Who is in charge of giving out tickets for these things...If only Republicans are in charge of who get in, then it seems to me it's obvious that these are Republican party functions, and they should be paid for by the Republican party.

All I know is that everybody I've read about always says they got their tickets from some Republican congressman's office.

Seems to me that, in every state that these functions take place, if a republican congressman is handing out tickets, then any democratic congressmen should DEMAND to be given tickets to hand out. Then let's see just exactly how non-partisan these events are!