Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

From the Progressive:

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”

Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’”

Click here for the rest.

Well, this kind of bullshit is now pretty much par for the course. Republicans have been harrassing and intimidating their critics for years now--don't forget how the White House capitalized on the Plame leak in order to punish former Ambasador Joseph Wilson for daring to debunk the Niger-Iraq uranium connection. The article explains how this guy who criticized Veep Cheney to his face was arrested for it, in front of his kid, at a public shopping mall. Fortunately, the "assault" charges were eventually dismissed, and Howards is now suing the agent who cuffed him, but, needless to say, no American citizen should have to put up with this crap.

Especially from a guy who shot his best friend in the face.

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