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."
If this guy is actually syndicated, I can think of at least fifty Freeper who should have regular columns.
There is a dangerous fifth column forming in this country. They need to know that if their actions cross over the line from free speech into the arena of illegal action that there are patriots willing to confront them and thwart them physically.
Dangerous - maybe. But I am fed up with the luke warm politically correct response given these HateAmericaFirsters by local authorities. That is particularlly true of our law enforcement folks here in Seattle.
A few hundred people clapped. Several hundred booed, and about 50 walked out...
If there were 1,700...what did the majority do, nothing? It sounds like a few booed, most clapped and a few walked out.
HA!!
...a complete waste of valuable electrons.
Damned right that's what I'm saying.
When are we going to start DEMANDING the names of the people the mediot cretins like to quote -- "anonymously" -- more & more often; who, *just* happen to parrot the Liberal-Socialist's shtick verbatim, huh?
I mean, how do we know any such person exists & especially when -- as I pointed out -- the supposed "concerned citizen" in effect contradicts their motive for wanting to remain unnamed within the same stinking piece.
Geehezzzz have we all gone daft, or what.
This stuff's pure BS & has been pure BS for a very, long time.
The fluffy, glowing *augmentation* of these "quotes" seems to tip-off the fruad, everytime.
Listen.
I'd LOVE to see -- *someone* ~ *anyone* -- just once get in the FACE of these mediot phonies & DEMAND *poof* their "sources" exist.
The moron urinalists could never provide any evidence whatsoever & I'd lay a hellova wager on that.
We've [read: AMERICA] got to start *checking* these LIARS *&* their "stories" out a lot more thoroughly than we have.
No where in our society are people reasonably expected to believe anything someone claims without their FIRST backing up their claim??
So why should some -- demonstrated -- Liberal-Socialist moron playing "journalist" be any different?
...that's the $64 question.
There was a period on the Art Bell show where he was entertaining assasination predictions from various leftist psychics and the like. He got a visit from the secret service and today the Art Bell show is no longer a clearinghouse for presidential death threats.
...don'tcha think I would?
What an ARSE-hole to say something like that. Sheesh !
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=15919
Richard Reeves |
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