No wonder neither Bush nor Cheney wanted to appear before an “unfiltered” crowd to throw out the first pitch of the new baseball season. Look what happened to the “Architect” last night:

Heckling protesters briefly delayed the car carrying top White House aide Karl Rove last night as he left the American University campus, where he had just given a speech. No arrests or injuries were reported after Rove’s invitation-only talk.

About 20 students lay in front of the car as it prepared to leave, a witness said.

Josh Goodman, an AU junior, said other students kicked the car “and tried to stop it as best as they could.”

He said the car, with Rove in the back seat, left after those in front of it “were all pulled away.”

I can’t remember this happening to any of Clinton’s staff, can you? The level of animosity toward this administration in the country is the highest I can recall since the Nixon years. And even then Tricky Dick felt comfortable enough to go to the Lincoln Memorial and talk to anti-war protesters one on one.

(cont.)

In May of 1970, right after the Kent State shootings, when civil unrest across the nation had reached a fever pitch and opposition to the war had roared again to the forefront, Nixon woke his personal valet in the middle of the night. He grabbed a few Secret Service agents and set off for the Lincoln Memorial. There, he spent an hour talking with a large gathering of war protesters encamped around the monument.

The Time Magazine article from May 18, 1970, recalls the scene this way: “When the conversation turned to the war, Nixon told the students: ‘I know you think we are a bunch of so and so’s.'” Before he left, Nixon said: ‘I know you want to get the war over. Sure you came here to demonstrate and shout your slogans on the ellipse. That’s all right. Just keep it peaceful. Have a good time in Washington, and don’t go away bitter.’ The singular odyssey went on. Nixon and his small contingent wandered through the capital, then drove to the Mayflower Hotel for a breakfast of corned beef hash and eggs – his first restaurant meal in Washington since he assumed power. Then he withdrew to his study in the Executive Office Building to sit out the day of protest.”

I can’t imagine “Mr. Jocularity”, George W. Bush, much less Rice, Rove, or Cheney doing anything remotely similar. Unless their audiences are carefully screened they just don’t take any chances with what the great unwashed might have to tell them. With good reason. It wouldn’t make for a pretty sound bite on the nightly news.