Inside Politics

Barney vs. Strom

A group of 11 congressmen yesterday asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to drop federal charges filed against a South Carolina war protester.

Activist Brett Bursey, 57, was arrested in Columbia in October for carrying a sign that read “No War for Oil” in a crowd of well-wishers who had gathered to welcome President Bush.

According to local press reports, Mr. Bursey was asked to give up his sign or go to the designated protest site in a less-visible area of the airport.

Mr. Bursey was arrested by local police and originally charged with trespassing. Those charges were dropped, but U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. picked up the mantle and charged Mr. Bursey with disregarding perimeters set up by Secret Service for presidential visits.

“There is no plausible argument that can be made that Mr. Bursey was threatening the president by holding a sign which the president found politically offensive,” wrote Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, and 10 other House members in their letter to Mr. Ashcroft. “It was not his presence in the area, but his presence holding a sign that was expressing a political viewpoint critical of the president that caused his arrest.”

Boxer challenger?

“U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin is now ‘former U.S. treasurer’ and heading back to California to launch a campaign against Sen. Barbara Boxer,” the anonymous Prowler writes at www.spectator.org.

“Marin has met several times with White House political guru Karl Rove, who while not promising to clear the field for her, indicated his happiness that she was entering the race,” the columnist said.

“Marin would seem positioned to at least give the Republicans something they haven’t had in the Golden State for years: an attractive, Hispanic candidate capable of running statewide. ‘At the least, her candidacy is going to help President Bush in the long term out there,’ says a state Republican Party operative in Sacramento. ‘At most, we’re looking at a candidate Barbara Boxer probably prefers to not run against.’

“Marin is the classic Bush/Rove candidate: a moderate on social issues, such as abortion, while remaining loyal and true to the Bush economic and international agenda. That strategy worked wonders in states like Minnesota and Missouri last year in helping the GOP retake majority control of the Senate.

“Marin was expected to make no immediate formal announcement about her plans, but fund-raisers in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco were already being planned at this writing.”

A risky scheme

Democrats are taking a gamble by relentlessly emphasizing the negative, Richard Benedetto writes at www.usatoday.com.

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