More On The Fargo Do Not Admit List

• February 8, 2005

Fargo Forum – The whodunit mystery surrounding the do-not-admit list for President Bush’s Fargo visit still hasn’t been solved, but clues uncovered Friday indicate a worker with the White House advance team may have been the culprit.
This comes just one day after spokesmen for the White House and North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said the list was the result of “an overzealous volunteer.”
The list contained the names of 42 people who were not supposed to be given tickets to Bush’s speech Thursday. Thirty-three of them belong to the local progressive group Democracy for America.
The White House advance team was comprised of several people — some state and local volunteers; others White House staff people — who came to Fargo ahead of time to prepare for the event.
White House spokesman Jim Morrell said Friday the overzealous volunteer could “very well be” someone from the advance team, but he doesn’t know who it was.
The White House wasn’t aware the list was being created or distributed and regrets that it happened, Morrell said.

I’m guessing the person responsible for the list knew about the Democracy for America group’s plans to demonstrate at the Bush speaking event and decided to take pre-emptive action. In which case, “over zealous” would be an accurate term though given the way the left has conducted itself at other Bush speaking events of late I can’t say I entirely blame this person. Trying to silence the President through heckling and thuggery is no more supportive of the ideals of democracy than creating “do not admit” lists for Presidential speaking events.
Still, the move should have been checked out with a superior.
(via Oliver Willis)

Tags: General

http://www.dakotapundit.com/ Dakota Pundit

I’m kind of weirded out by the whole “Do not admit” list. I don’t know
what to make of it.

I’m not opposed to it, by any means. I think the president and the
Republicans can keep hostile people away from their parties, for any
reason they wish. It might not be the smartest P.R. move, but in this
case it didn’t seem to hurt them much. Those who were on the “list”
seemed petty and small in their complaints; I guess I’m thinking of
the Fargo councilwoman who whined to the newspapers.

More than anything, I’m discouraged by the reporting that was done on
this issue. When the story broke, I was confused. Apparently, so were
the journalists who tried to cover the story. Who wrote the list? Who
circulated it? Who was really in charge? I never really could tell …
I guess I’m still witholding judgment until I know.
Remy Logan

Hecklers and other assorted jerks at any political rally of any political party are not exercising their rights to free speech — What they are doing is violating my right to peaceably assemble. If they want to heckle then they can do it from outside the gate. Whether it’s Bush, Kerry, Buchanan, Clinton, whoever, all of them should be able to hold rallies and meetings without being interrupted by those who disagree witht their views once the meeting has started.

As for the “do not admit” list, I’ll worry about it when JFK apologizes for keeping demonstrators locked up inside of a razor-wire cage while in Boston. Controlling the message is what all politicians do. Yes, the Bush advance team deserves a bit of criticism, but I ain’t gonna listen to any of it until the press starts picking on the Dems too. I know that if a president JFK (shudder-shudder) had come to my hometown to speak, and I was offered tickets, I would have gone to listen and see the man. I wouldn’t have gone to boo or heckle or be a jerk. I bet that many of those on the list would have felt the same way.

SayAnythingBlog.com

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