[PAA-Discuss] "Try Rove for treason"

[June Bennett Larsen]

    Sheehan's Rally Disrupts Rove Reception
     By Angela K. Brown
     The Associated Press

     Sunday 20 August 2006

     Austin, Texas - Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan  
and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before  
President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.

     One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after  
Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors  
and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.

     Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and  
ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel  
lobby during the reception.

     "I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son,"  
Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey  
was killed in Iraq in 2004.

     Police then ordered the group to leave, but some protesters had  
paid for rooms for the night. Those protesters went upstairs,  
including Sheehan.

     Earlier, wearing shorts and T-shirts while guests of the lobby  
reception walked past in sequined dresses and expensive suits, anti- 
war demonstrators carried American flags and signs, including one  
that read "Check your conscience." A few protesters unfurled a large  
banner from a sixth-floor hotel balcony that read "Rove v. Truth: No  
Contest. Pink slip Rove."

     Those at the reception sipped their drinks and largely ignored  
the protesters before they started chanting. One man looked at the  
group and said, "Go Bush!"

     Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the  
hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of  
crimes against humanity." Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who  
resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn,  
"Karl Rove, you are a criminal!"

     After about 30 minutes, Austin police made them move onto grass  
at the edge of the property about a block away. Dozens remained later  
Saturday, holding signs as cars drove by, honking their horns.

     Sheehan and the group left their campsite in Crawford near  
Bush's ranch, where they have held vigil the past two weeks, and  
drove about 100 miles south to Austin.

     The war protest will continue until early September, although  
Bush's ranch 10-day ranch vacation ended last weekend. Sheehan's 26- 
day protest last August drew more than 10,000 people to her campsite  
in ditches off the rural road leading to the ranch, but she recently  
bought land near downtown for the group to camp on.



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