Posted on 10/31/2006 12:47:08 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine -- The lawyer who divulged President Bush's drunken-driving arrest days before the 2000 election was arrested Tuesday after he was spotted on a highway overpass wearing an Osama bin Laden Halloween costume and holding a toy gun.
Tom Connolly, 49, was charged with criminal threatening, a misdemeanor, and was released after posting $500 bail. He said he intends to plead not guilty.
"There was a First Amendment this morning when I woke up. I don't know how it evaporated with the dawn," Connolly, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1998, told reporters after his release.
Police said the costume included plastic dynamite, grenades, and a replica of an AK-47 assault rifle.
"The whole thing is just incredibly bizarre," said Police Chief Ed Googins. "It just crossed the line."
The chief said there was no way to tell from a distance if the gun was real or fake.
Connolly also was carrying a sign that said "I love TABOR," a reference to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the Maine ballot, but at least one person who saw it thought it said "I love the Taliban," Googins said.
The Portland attorney is known for wearing costumes to make political statements, often donning a George W. Bush mask and dancing for passing motorists.
His wife has described him as "marvelously eccentric."
In 2000, Connolly acknowledged that he tipped off reporters about Bush's 24-year-old misdemeanor drunken driving charge at Kennebunkport. Republicans said the release of the information before the election was a Democratic dirty trick.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I suspect the gentlest of zephyrs did that job long ago.
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
When rich people do something bizarre, they're referred to as "eccentric". When poor people do the same, they're called "crazy".
Arrested eh? Ha, what goes around comes around.
Not a problem. I'm wearing a t-shirt at the moment which says, "Innocent Bystander". It has nine .45 caliber holes in it.
I use Wilson Magazines. That accounts for the ninth shot.
"Demented Lefty".........Redundant.
Semper Fi
I just had a vision of some guy with tobacco stains dripping down his beard loading him on the hood of his pickup heading for the police station to get his reward. I live in Texas so I know there are guys like that out there. I just don't understand how these idiots keep living.I can't imaging standing on an overpass with a gun and a raghead costume. With dynamite and grenades, no way he should live through it. A cop should have taken him down if a redneck missed the opportunity.
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