Political Rally Ends in Shoving Match (Joan Jett article redux)

WOI-TV Iowa ^ | Saturday January, 17, 2004 (actually Monday Jan 19th) | no byline

[weegee]

( Des Moines)-- A Democratic rally at the Drake University Olmstead Center urged young Iowans to get out and vote. The rally -- in support of Howard Dean-- was targeted toward high school and college students, a group known for not turning out to vote. The rally featured comedian Janene Garafalo and classic rock star Joan Jett, but was interrupted by a surprise visit from some unwanted guests.

A group of college Republicans at their Midwest caucus leadership conference -- being held in the same building -- heard about the Democratic event, and crashed the rally.

"There are seven of us who worked really hard at putting this conference together," said Jason Cole of the college Republicans. "So we met, discussed, and majority ruled. We went down there."

What they didn't discuss is what to do if things get out of hand. One of the Bush supporters shoved Jett and and the singer pushed back in anger.

Cole said that was the decision of one person, and not at all representative of what the conference was trying to do.

Campus security did show up to break things up and the concert resumed as planned. In fact, Jett wrapped up her day with two more performances, one in Fort Dodge and the other in Marshalltown."

[weegee]

The headline from this article was rewritten to tone down the type of "violence" at the rally (not a "brawl", now it is a shoving match).

Still no ID for the perp.

Here is the original thread (the article has been offline for nearly a day).

Political Rallies End in Brawl

[WHBates]

Wow at one point in my life I think I liked a Joan Jett tune. Go figure?????

[weegee]

She's done some decent things. I don't agree with her politics (she did visit the troops; I wonder how many of her supporters agree with that decision).

I still want to know what actually happened. Only one affiliate is reporting this incident so far and they pulled the article to tone it down.

The left is posting the original account to some weblogs. The damage is done, they've got their boogeyman. Facts are irrelevant.

[anonymous_user]

Wow at one point in my life I think I liked a Joan Jett tune. Go figure?????

Yeah, and I used to have a mullet. *sigh*

[MotleyGirl70]

I'm surprised Chrissy Hynde wasn't there.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Of course, Iowa currently IS full of 'Pretenders.'

[TexasBarak]

I watched an episod of Ollie North's show on Fox a couple of weeks ago that spotlighted the USO. Joan Jett has apparently been a fairly frequent USO performer, and specifically asked to go the crappy locations, on the basis that soldiers in Hawaii were'nt the ones that needed the boost.

[KellyAdmirer]

targeted toward high school and college students

If one in ten of this crowd has heard of Joan Jett at all, that's a lot.

[adam_az]

Who was the putz???

Or was it an agent provocateur?

[baltodog]

Take this any way that you want to fellow Freepers, but there is something attractive in Joan Jett's "toughness".

She can shove me around anytime she wants.

[Clemenza]

Take this any way that you want to fellow Freepers, but there is something attractive in Joan Jett's "toughness".

I'm sure you were attracted to Janet Reno too... ;-)

Gaydar: It aint just for Homosexuals anymore

[baltodog]

Now you're starting to sound like my wife....

[WHBates]

LOL

[weegee]

It's about as relevant as Chubby Checker (a star in 1961) trying to motivate the youth vote in 1983 when Joan Jett was on the charts.

Few high school students vote because you have to be 18 to register to vote.