The Bush re-election campaign consistently excludes from speeches and other campaign stops anyone suspected of not being a loyal Bush supporters. Anyone who wears or says the wrong things is kicked out, but as local citizens they are expected to help pay for those rallies - sometimes to the tune of several hundred dollars per minute.

Steven Benen writes in Gadflyer:

In every instance, Bush gatherings are closed to the general public and tickets, while technically free, are carefully distributed through the campaign office and the local Republican Party. Unlike the complementary tickets, the burden on localities can be significant. The bubble that shields the president from any form of dissent happens to be an expensive one for cash-strapped cities. Taxpayers who disagree with the president's agenda aren't eligible to hear him speak, but they are nevertheless forced to pick up the tab. A growing number of local officials have begun to wonder aloud if they're entitled to a refund.

Mankato, Minn., for example, was honored to have Bush visit in early August – the first presidential campaign stop in the city since Harry Truman in 1948. Excitement, however, turned into widespread resentment when two high-school students, with tickets in hand, were denied entry because local Republican organizers recognized them as kids of state Democratic lawmakers. When their teacher and National Guardsman Tim Walz stood up for the students' right to hear their president, he, too, was shown the door and threatened with arrest.

Even under the most generous of definitions, the president's gatherings cannot reasonably be described as "public." Indeed, Bush staffers openly and unabashedly discriminate – even among ticket-holders – based on voters' partisan affiliation, ideology, and choice of t-shirts. ... Bush aides aren't just throwing out potential criminals and those who try to be disruptive; they're banishing anyone they suspect to be unfaithful to Bush's cause. Adding insult to injury, those same unwelcome citizens – some of whom are removed for infractions no more serious than wearing a Kerry lapel pin – are required to help pay for the rallies they've been thrown out of.

For as long as I can remember, campaign speeches and other rallies have consistently included some contingent of dissenters and demonstrators. News cameras would typically pan to the back to show a group, not usually too large, carrying signs criticizing whoever is speaking. This was free speech in action: a politician speaks, most listen passively, some cheer, and a few in the back criticize. It's not perfect democracy, but it showed that the body politic was healthy.

President Bush, however, has injected noxious poison into the body that is causing it to sputter and turn ugly shades of green. Bush doesn't have to like the fact that people disagree with his policies, but it's an abuse of his power and position to shove them so far to the side that they appear neither in his line of sight nor in the line of sight of the media covering his speeches. It should be enough to kick out those who cause so much disruption that the event can't go on, not those whose mere presence is a reminder that Bush has failed to be a uniter rather than a divider.

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