Mayor in Utah protests Iraq war
By James Gerstenzang
Los Angeles Times
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With President Bush visiting Salt Lake City to address the American Legion today, the Utah city on Wednesday hosted one of the anti-war protests presidential visits often attract. But this protest occurred in the capital of the reddest state in the nation and one of the speakers was the mayor of the state's largest city.
In Salt Lake City, the ruckus surrounding Mayor Rocky Anderson, a Democrat, is seen by many as just "Rocky being Rocky," said Randy Simmons, a political-science professor at Utah State University who is married to one of Anderson's cousins.
Still, the protest against Bush and his Iraq policy is a reminder that, even in friendly territory, the war debate dominates his presidency.
The Utah Republican Party sponsored radio advertisements around the state denouncing the mayor and those advocating what the party calls "cut-and-run" tactics in Iraq. The mayor's office hired three temporary workers to answer the more than 1,600 calls it received over two days.
Anderson's spokesman said the Republican radio campaign stirred up not just opposition but new demonstrations of support for the mayor's anti-Bush positions.
The controversy illustrates the extreme sensitivity surrounding the war, not just in more typically liberal communities but in a state where the National Guard has contributed heavily to the force in Iraq and one that gave Bush 71 percent of its vote two years ago.
That was the greatest percentage of any state in the 2004 election. Polls show Bush remains more popular in Utah than in any other state.
Anderson addressed protesters hours before Bush was due to arrive Wednesday. The crowd numbered 5,000 or more, said Crystal Young-Otterstrom of Utahvoices.org, sponsor of the protest. The Salt Lake Tribune reported about 4,000 attended.
The radio ads launched by the state Republican Party ran Monday and Tuesday on stations throughout the state, said the party's executive director, Jeff Hartley. On some stations, they were broadcast 20 times a day.
"The goal is really just to raise our voice and let the rest of the nation know that Rocky and the rest of his folks do not represent the values of the rest of Utah," Hartley said.
Anderson said in a telephone interview Wednesday that Republicans "would rather shut down any dissent" than discuss "the facts, which would mean admitting to the outrageous misrepresentation ... leading us into the war."
Bush's American Legion address scheduled for today will be the first in a series of speeches on the battle against terrorism, culminating with an appearance before the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19, the White House said.
Bush said there was nothing political about the upcoming speeches.
"They're speeches to make it clear that, if we retreat before the job is done, this nation will become even more in jeopardy," he said outside a restaurant in Little Rock, Ark., near a fundraising reception he attended on behalf of GOP gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson.
His comments came one day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of the Bush administration to people who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II.
Many Democrats in Congress viewed Rumsfeld's remarks as fighting words.
Sen. Jack Reed, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Rumsfeld has been "substituting sloganing for strategy."
It is time Rumsfeld "should be departing" the Pentagon, Reed, D-R.I., added.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "Rumsfeld's efforts to smear critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy are a pathetic attempt to shift the public's attention from his repeated failure to manage the conduct of the war competently."
Material from Reuters and The Associated Press is included in this report.
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
seattletimes.nwsource.com |
