Last update: October 5, 2004 at 9:09 PM
Protesters raise a ruckus at GOP office
Patricia Lopez, Star Tribune
October 6, 2004 NURSES1006
Protesters pushed their way into the lobby of the Bush/Cheney campaign headquarters and confronted startled staffers in St. Paul on Tuesday during a surprise rally to protest the administration's change in overtime rules that they say could deprive 250,000 Minnesota workers of overtime pay.
Of the more than 300 workers bused in by Minnesota labor unions for the outdoor rally, about a dozen protesters pressed forward into the campaign headquarters' lobby. The protesters were trying to deliver plastic bins filled with postcards but found their way into the headquarters itself blocked by an eight-foot-long Bush/Cheney placard that had been upended against an interior door.
The postcards bore the signatures of 10,000 Minnesotans protesting the change in overtime rules that went into effect in late August, said Diane O'Brien, spokeswoman for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents 400,000 Minnesotans. "We want to send a message to the president," O'Brien said.
A Bush volunteer attempted first to shut the door against the protesters, then to push out several, including Jon Youngdahl of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, who struggled to yell through his bullhorn while the volunteer kept searching for a mute button on it. Others blasted airhorns in the lobby while one man pushed repeatedly on the campaign's intercom to yell his protest.
Outside, hundreds waved orange-and-black signs that said "Bush's overtime cut -- another corporate handout," and chanted "George Bush, go away, don't take away my overtime pay."
The noontime protest happened to come on the first day of ticket distribution for Saturday's presidential visit, and according to Bush/Cheney campaign spokesman Peter Hong, several dozen volunteers and ticketholders were trapped inside.
None of the protesters made it inside the offices, Hong said, but "obviously some of our people were concerned, especially those who came to pick up tickets who had children here with them."
Hong said the protest "reflects the frustration the Kerry people are feeling. If they could sell John Kerry, they'd be out doorknocking and phonebanking, not disrupting the proceedings of a rival campaign office."
Ray Waldron, president of the AFL-CIO, said the protest was to ensure that labor's message about overtime got out. Under the changes, he said, dozens of categories of workers could be subject to exemption.
Jean Ross, a registered nurse at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, told the crowd on Tuesday that if she tells an aide to "move a patient the way I showed you yesterday, I can now be classified as a supervisor."
The rules regarding overtime have been mired in controversy since last year, when the Bush administration moved to change rules that would allow more than 1 million lower-income wage-earners to become eligible for overtime but that could also deny overtime to more than 6 million workers nationwide.
The new rules make it easier to classify workers as administrative, professional or executive employees -- three categories typically exempt from overtime. White-collar employees who make more than $100,000 a year now are automatically exempt from overtime.
St. Paul Police Commander Tyrone Strickland said that Tuesday's protest "was peaceful" and that the group had a permit.
>Howie,
>How do you know? What is your source? And how did you make the leap to
>Watergate? It actually has no relevance to Sam's email. And nowhere is
>criminal activity mentioned. But now that you bring it up...
>
>Do you believe that this was proper behavior? Is so, why didn't you choose to
>defend versus condemn it?
>
>Andy
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Howie Hamlin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 12:46 PM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: Re: Bush, Kerry and non-admittance
>
>
> Unlike Nixon and Watergate, the Democratic Party and John Kerry have nothing
>to do with these things - lumping Kerry's name in with criminal activity is a
>complete distortion.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sam Morris
> To: CF-Community
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 1:41 PM
> Subject: Re: Bush, Kerry and non-admittance
>
> And here's why:
>
> Angry Kerry Activists Lay Siege to Bush Office in St.
> Paul, Intimidate Voters
>
> ST. PAUL -- On the same day that someone fired shots
> into the windows at the Bush/Cheney campaign
> headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee, angry Kerry
> supporters laid siege to the Bush headquarters in St.
> Paul Minnesota today.
> "Today's siege on the Bush/Cheney headquarters in St.
> Paul was an attempt by Democrats and the Kerry
> campaign to intimidate voters who were picking up
> tickets to see the President," said Republican Party
> of Minnesota State Chair Ron Eibensteiner. "The
> Minnesota Kerry Campaign and DFL are ruled by an angry
> mob mentality that has nothing positive to offer
> Minnesota voters." Today Kerry supporters blocked the
> entrance to the Bush campaign's Minnesota headquarters
> with buses and proceeded to rush into the headquarters
> in a clear attempt to intimidate voters who were
> picking up tickets to see the President this Saturday.
>
> Eibensteiner called on DFL Chair Mike Erlandson and
> Kerry's Minnesota campaign to immediately cease these
> kinds of intimidation tactics.
>
> "Lately, the DFL Party and Kerry Campaign can be best
> described as Anger Incorporated," said Eibensteiner.
> "They need to stop their escalation of these
> intimidation tactics before someone gets hurt."
>
> Eibensteiner pointed out other instances where
> out-of-control Kerry supporters have intimidated
> voters. For example, at the Gophers football game last
> weekend, a Kerry supporter physically assaulted a
> female College Republican who was handing out flyers
> supporting the President. In a similar incident, Kerry
> supporters assaulted College Republicans at the
> Minnesota State Fair. During the incident, the union
> members elbowed two College Republicans in the head
> and threw them to the ground. Also, DFL Party
> officials have yet to repudiate a bumper sticker,
> which was handed out from their party headquarters
> comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler.
>
> "Anger is no substitute for optimistic leadership,"
> said Eibensteiner. "Through their actions, Democrats
> have shown themselves incapable of governing
> themselves, much less our nation, during these
> challenging times."
>
> http://www.mngop.com/info.cfm?x=2&pname=seltype&pval=1&pname2=infoID&pval2
>=2533
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