Colorado’s Democratic Party is calling on Republicans and the Bush administration to identify the man who ousted three Denverites from a presidential event in March.
“You’ve got to wonder what they’re hiding,” said Pat Waak, the state Democratic chairwoman. “They need to come clean with the name.”
Colorado’s Republican chairman – who took office the week of President Bush’s publicly funded Social Security meeting in Denver on March 21 – said Wednesday he knows nothing about the man’s identity. Bob Martinez at once admonished the White House for its lack of transparency and defended it for protecting the president.
“The appearances appear to be questionable,” Martinez said of the administration’s refusal to out the man responsible. “However, I can understand that at a presidential event you need to be leery about the safety of the president and those around him.”
For its part, the Bush administration refused to respond to the Democrats’ challenge Wednesday. In a White House briefing, press secretary Scott McClellan would not reveal the identity of the man in question.
“I don’t think that really serves any purpose to get into that publicly, other than to help advance the political agenda of these three individuals,” he said.
The controversy stems from Bush’s heavily scripted forum on Social Security last month at Denver’s Wings Over the Rockies museum.
Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise and Alex Young – three Bush critics who obtained tickets to the event through Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez’s office – were booted from the meeting before it started by a man they believed was a Secret Service agent. They have launched an intense public- relations campaign complaining about the incident, prompting the Secret Service to investigate the man’s identity.
The White House says the man was a volunteer and that he rightly booted the three to avoid disruption.
Not so, said David Miller, a lawyer for the “Denver Three” who says the Secret Service confirmed the man was a “host-committee staff person.”
“The White House press secretary has an obligation to state truthful and accurate information … ,” he said. “His assertions at the press briefing are directly disputed by the Secret Service.”
Staff writer Susan Greene can be reached at 303-820-1589 or sgreene@denverpost.com.
