Bubble Wrap

The New York Times reports on the interesting turn of events arising out of a lawsuit brought by an individual who had been arrested after expressing anti-war sentiments to Dick Cheney during an event in Denver. As noted in Secret Service: Detailed Look at ’06 Turmoil:

The arrest of a man named Steven Howards in June 2006 after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney at a Colorado ski resort and denounced the war in Iraq might have seemed, at the time, no more than a blip on the vice president’s schedule.

But now the blip has become a blowup, with Secret Service agents — under oath in court depositions — accusing one another of unethical and perhaps even illegal conduct in the handling of Mr. Howards’s arrest and the official accounting of it.

The revelations arise from a lawsuit Mr. Howards filed against five Secret Service agents, accusing them of civil rights and free-speech violations.

Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report succinctly sums up the controversy in When the Secret Service breaks the law to protect The Bubble:

Over the course of two terms, the Bush White House’s efforts to maintain an impenetrable ideological “Bubble” have become the stuff of legend. It’s always amazed me the extent to which the Bush gang will shield itself from anyone, or anything, that even resembles dissent. We’re dealing with a group that believes it has a monopoly on truth, so it will frequently go to extraordinary lengths to obstruct those who disagree.

In the case of Steven Howards, the story is not just absurd, it’s possibly illegal.

The incident sounds pretty harmless. In June 2006, Howards, a 55-year-old environmental consultant, was taking his 8-year-old son to a piano lesson last June when he saw Dick Cheney. Howards approached the Vice President, got within two feet of him and calmly said, “I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.” Howards then reportedly patted Cheney on the shoulder as he walked away.

Howards walked back through the area 10 minutes later when a Secret Service agent handcuffed him and said he would be charged with “assaulting” the VP. Howards eventually faced misdemeanor harassment charges that could have resulted in up to a year in jail, though the charges were later dismissed at the request of the local district attorney.

I wrote about this story at the time when it occurred in October of 2006. See Reprehensible You. At the time, Howards denied having touched Cheney during the encounter. He isn't clear on that point, saying that he may have lightly touched Cheney on the arm or shoulder, Denver lawyer seeks to depose Cheney in assault case. What does seem clear, however, is that Howards' chance encounter with Cheney was in no way an assault on the Vice President, unless expressing any non-Administration sanctioned views is deemed to be an assault.

While there is some dispute over exactly what happened, the secret service agents who were with Cheney say that there was contact, but not to the degree of constituting an assault. See Coverup alleged in lawsuit involving Cheney. The controversy has resulted over whether the original reports of the "assault" submitted by the Secret Service who witnessed the event were later changed to say that no assault occurred or whether the arresting agent tried to coerce the other agents to bolster the charges to justify the arrest. In other words, it appears that there was an attempt to "trump up" the charges to cover up the unwarranted arrest.

The controversy has also earned mentioned on Keith Olbermann's ongoing "Bushed" series, as noted in the above video. For more installments, see Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Of course, the Administration is keeping out of it, and I have no doubt that the efforts of Howards' attorney to depose Cheney will go nowhere -- if necessary, they'll put some sort of "state secrets" or executive privilege argument to preclude his testimony. Now that there's been a spate of bad press related to this incident, I'm sure a settlement will be the next step. Unfortunately, this insulation only adds to the lack of accountability or responsibility for their actions. So, lesson learned? None.