Posted on 03/20/2003 1:32:10 PM PST by FastNBulbous
Columnist's comments on Bush met with cheers, jeers
Richard Reeves predicts President Bush will be assassinated over the war.
By ROBERT ECKHART robert.eckhart@heraldtribune.com
SARASOTA -- The jeers started at about the time syndicated columnist Richard Reeves predicted that President Bush will be assassinated over the war with Iraq.
Reeves, addressing a crowd of 1,700 at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Wednesday, also called Secretary of State Colin Powell "incompetent" and -- this one got the most boos -- said that starting a war with Iraq will be the beginning of the end of the American Empire.
A few hundred people clapped. Several hundred booed, and about 50 walked out, making it the the most controversial Town Hall Today lecture in a decade.
"I wasn't surprised," said Susan Barcomb, chairwoman of the volunteer group that organizes the annual lecture series as a fund-raiser for the Ringling School Library Association. "He's very liberal and very outspoken."
The last person who got booed was Robert Kennedy Jr., early in the Clinton administration.
The audience at the Town Hall lectures is largely retired, well-to-do, well-educated and tough.
But the catcalls are usually saved for people who get out of their seats early to get a good seat for lunch.
Reeves, who has written critically-acclaimed books about Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, had talked for an hour about the two presidents without any trouble.
Iraq came up during the question-and-answer portion of his presentation. He didn't say anything out of line with what he has written lately. On Saturday, for example, he wrote, "It is hard not to conclude that the president is ignorant, the secretary of defense nuts and the secretary of state incompetent."
And he had plenty of supporters at Wednesday's lectures. But some of them thought it best to keep quiet, unlike the 200 or 300 people who booed him.
An 80-year-old woman who agreed with Reeves called the Herald-Tribune to talk about it, but wouldn't give her name. She didn't want her neighbors to know she doesn't agree with them about the war.
"I just felt very strongly that he said many of the things that should be said, and there were a lot of people who just didn't want to hear it," she said. "Many of the things he said were a little bit much, and I think some people were offended because of what's going on now in the world."
Reeves left Sarasota in the afternoon and did not respond to e-mails requesting an interview.
But he wasn't fazed at all by the booing as he sat with Barcomb and ate lunch at Van Wezel -- grilled fish with salsa, rice and lemon meringue pie.
"He had so many people come up to him who were praising him and asking questions," Barcomb said. "I had to drag him out of the lunchroom. They wouldn't let him go."
This guy thinks the commies here are actually ready to kill a U.S. president? Who the hell is Reeves?
Fixed the headline for them.
ACK! This ahole BETTER be wrong AND I hope he gets a knock on the door from the SS finding out exactly what in the world would prompt him to make such a stupid statement.
I hate talk like this.
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