Scott McClellan's a real sweetie pie. Here's some more shennanigans...
Jay Bob Klinkerman, head of Colorado Young Republicans, is Uncovered by Denver 3 in Connection to Their Forced Removal at Bush Public Event, But Mystery Man Who Allegedly Criminally Impersonated a Secret Service Agent Still Not Revealed by WH
Klinkerman Contradicts White House Spokesman Scott McClellan Saying Mystery Man Was Not Local Volunteer, As White House Stalls on Revealing Alleged Criminal’s Identity
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
For five years, the Bush Whites House has been denying entry to American taxpayer funded presidential events to people they suspect of being Democrats, opposing the Iraq War, or who have been critical of Bush. Sometimes, as in West Virginia, this has led to people being arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights. It is how business is conducted in a dictatorship not a democracy.
BuzzFlash has been covering this Constitutionally prohibited White House activity since Bush was sworn in. Each time, the White House claims it was due to "overzealous" local volunteers, but in a recent Washington Post, a White House spokesman indicated that the Bush Administration didn't want anyone at the events who "didn't respect the President," to paraphrase him.
Recently, we have been covering one of the latest Bush illegal suppression of Constitutionally guaranteed rights to attend taxpayer-funded presidential events, without excluding people because a White House spy might have noticed that they arrived in a car with a "No War in Iraq" bumper sticker (this is just one example of the KGB suppression of free speech employed by the Busheviks). This is the case of the "Denver 3."
The latest development is that Karen Bauer of the "Denver 3" uncovered Jay Bob Klinkerman, head of the Colorado Young Republicans, as one of the people involved in President Bush’s March 21st town hall meeting where three Denver residents were forcibly removed from the event by a man who apparently illegally impersonated a secret service agent.
On Tuesday night, Karen Bauer attended a meeting and identified Klinkerman as working the March 21st town hall event. At the town hall, Klinkerman stopped Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise from going into the event and allegedly told them to wait for a Secret Service agent. Minutes later a man arrived wearing a dark suit, earpiece and lapel pin. After initially allowing them to be seated for the event, the mystery man later forcibly removed Alex Young, Leslie Weise, and Karen Bauer from the taxpayer-funded town hall meeting. The Secret Service confirmed the mystery man was not one of their agents and has launched a criminal investigation into the matter, but the White House and the Secret Service are continuing to withhold the man’s identity.
When Karen Bauer confronted Klinkerman he immediately replied, "I won’t talk to you about that without a lawyer," according to the Rocky Mountain News. Klinkerman said he had never met the man who impersonated a secret service agent, an assertion that contradicted White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s evolving explanations about who the man is and where he is from. Although McClellan keeps alleging the man was a "volunteer," even the Secret Service determined the mystery man was an "official host committee staff person."
And the Denver Post revealed that this mystery man pretending to be a federal agent did more than just violate the Denver 3’s civil and constitutional rights. Jim Spencer, a columnist for The Denver Post, revealed that the mystery man illegally threatened Max and Susan Tyler, both 57, also at the town hall with arrest. After the mystery man forcibly removed the Denver 3, he returned and said the town hall was a "private event" where people could be asked to leave "for any reason" or "arrested for trespassing." The reality was it was a taxpayer funded presidential event, to which American citizens were denied entry based on "suspicion" of being protestors. Spencer’s column noted that Max Tyler dictated notes into his Palm organizer to record what was happening.
Clearly, Scott McClellan and the White House know who this mystery man is but are keeping this information from the American people. As Jim Spencer noted in his column, "Bush’s spin doctors, it seems, would have Americans believe that any old Republican Party member gets to wear a lapel pin and an earpiece at an official White House event."
What’s astonishing is the investigative work of Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise, and Alex Young in tracking down the leads to this disturbing story. Although the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have also been diligent in covering this incident, the credit is primarily due to the Denver 3’s own persistence. We’ll never know if the Denver newspapers would’ve dogged this story if Bauer, Weise, and Young weren’t paving the way. It is sad that three Denver residents are doing more investigative work than the American press.
Perhaps the White House is hoping they can pursue the same strategy as they did with the Valerie Plame affair and so many others scandals which is to put on the appearance of a slow "investigation" and avoid answering questions until the story gets pushed off the headlines. Maybe McClellan is hoping – or planning? – that the Secret Service will miraculously determine no crime was committed and that this "volunteer" didn’t impersonate a secret service agent despite all the witnesses who said he did, earpiece and all.
But what’s different about this incident, and what Scott McClellan should know is that this time he’s got three Americans who are angry their civil and constitutional rights were violated. It’s much easier for the White House and McClellan to allow other crimes to slip by, but this time the Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise, and Alex Young are hot on the trail and showing no signs of giving up.
The American media could learn a thing or two from the Denver 3, about how to pursue a story the White House wants to bury. |
