I was there at the corner of Hall and Schools Ferry with my "Rove Go Home" sign. (Later when it got windy I switched to a smaller "President Pelosi" sign.) There was a lot of honking and waving from passing cars in support and that was fun. (Hey - next time protest with us!!) It was about 6:45 or 6:50 that we saw a limo come up Scholls Ferry and turn right on Hall. No police escort. Was it him? I don't know - but I would be thrilled if Rove saw me. There were police everywhere in general, but everything seemed to go very smoothly and I did not see any problems anywhere.

I stayed until people were leaving - one woman who was leaving from the event yelled at me "bad girl!" ??!! Let's examine this woman's value structure. Stealing elections, lying, cheating, destroying emails that are the subject of an investigation, engaging in utter abject corruption, reviving the fine art of McCarthyism, repeated use of federal agencies for political campaign purposes (Hatch Act violation, especially in Oregon - Dept. of Interior misuse in 2002), leaking the name of a CIA agent to quash the truth about the Administration's lies and endangering her life and the lives of other CIA agents, conspiring to fire US Attorneys for refusing to abuse the legal system and act like political thugs - and that's just a part of what Rove has done - and I'm the bad one for my meager, lawful, peaceful exercise of free speech rights to protest such blatant, destructive wrongdoing? To say that I question this woman's judgment would be an extreme understatement. As she must know, my purpose in being there yesterday was to make it clear to all that I will not stand silently by while this Administration, supported by people like her, continues its corrupt activities.

I pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex next door at 5:30 (I have a parking permit there). As I was trying to figure out where to go with my little sign, a Tigard Police officer jumped out of the bushes and demanded I get my hands out of my pockets and put them where I could see them. Scared the crap out of me.
After he was convinced I wasn't a sniper or anything, he let me go and told me to clear the area before it was "locked down."
I walked the long way around the Target to the protest area and joined just under 60 people at the corner at 6:05. Lots of friendly people holding signs, chit-chatting, and smiling. A few minutes later, a very vocal counter-protester showed up on the opposite corner with his two obviously VERY embarrassed friends with a sign that said "Bush is the shit." We all laughed pretty heartily at that one. He proceeded to scream things like, "Go back to Russia, fags" and "Get out of my country!" They had a confederate flag, but didn't really bring it out--apparently--until after I left. A few of the younger ones on our side of the road yelled back at him, but most of us just kept laughing. I tried to videotape it, but traffic was pretty loud so I'm not sure how well it will turn out. Passing cars were about 85% on our side, and 15% middle fingers. One of the circling Tigard police officers kept flashing us the peace sign and waving, but the others would just kind of ignore us as they drove by. A few Tigard officers were also taking a lot of pictures of us, which made some people nervous. One older protester kept muttering things like, "I bet we can take them" and "Doesn't look like they brought enough cops" but people ignored him.
There were a lot of Portland Police there too, but I didn't recognize any of them so I don't think they were from SE precinct. At any rate, they seemed much more at ease than the Tigard officers. There was also a counter-protester in a military uniform with a sign that said "Hooray Saddam Dead Osama Next." He was pretty vocal toward the end, but all I heard him say for sure was "Now that's my kinda woman!" repeatedly. Not sure what that means.
I left at 6:40 for a dinner date back home, before the group that infiltrated the restaurant joined the people on the sidewalk.
On my way back to the car, a Portland officer told me to have a good night and I returned the sentiment.

I need to add this.

I purchased a ticket for the event. Two days later the Washington County Republicans left a message on my voice mail: because of the fire code they were revoking my ticket.

Fire code? Did you oversell tickets through a computer error?

Why not just say, as consistent with the policy on your website, you reserve the right to decline admission? Fire code violation sounds like you are trying too hard to justify exclusion. I wanted to go and hear what was said. I'm fine with declining admission consistent with policy (as long as this event, including Karl Rove's travel to and from, was not paid for in any way by tax dollars - then it must be open to all taxpayers who buy an available ticket). Bringing the "fire code" in was a bit much.

Was any part of this event, including Karl Rove's travel, flight, limo, security, etc. - paid for by tax dollars?

Washington County Republicans, I would appreciate your confirmation that it was not. Because the fact that you felt the need to decline my admission based on what appears to be a pretext instead of the real reason raises questions in my mind. Denying a taxpayer entrance to a taxpayer-funded event for political reasons? All I ask for is for your public statement confirming no taxpayer funds.

From TheOregonian: "Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, stoked enthusiasm among about 200 party donors ..." "Outside, about 50 protesters gathered..."

Hmmm, I think the numbers mean something. Shouldn't that headline have read: "Rove draws few GOP faithful, protesters in Tigard"

If anyone is interested, here are the two videos of the counter-protest I took yesterday. Warning: Harsh language, confusing, and pretty boring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moVvpRgMR6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67S5pILkEMo

I'm sure more protesters would have shown up, but it was in fricking Tigard. At rush hour. Pretty smart place and time for a republican gathering.

How could the Washington County Republicans make any money from Rove's "fundraiser"? If only 200 people attended, paying (as reported in the media) from $40-60 each for "finger food," the event raised a mere $10,000, which is presumably far less than the cost of delivering Mr. Rove to PDX and paying his expenses. Apparently the party is willing to take a small financial hit in order to rally the GOP loyalists in Oregon's second largest county, which has been tilting toward Democrats lately.

I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't more effort to organize a bigger demonstration against Rove's appearance. On the other hand, the Republicans have an up-hill fight trying to regain dominance in Washington County if the best they can do as a draw is the Dark Prince attached to a President with the lowest sustained popularity since Hubert Hoover.

As a Washington County Dem, I'd be overjoyed to have Rove appear at our fundraiser tonight in King City... We could raise 10k in ten minutes if he agreed to sit in our dunk tank!

Kari Chishom wrote: "Ron, can you give yourself more of an identifier than just "Ron"."

Sure. I was suffering from a mix of lazy typing and an exalted sense of self-importance and thought that being "Ron" was sufficient.

Ron from Aloha (if you please)

"One older protester kept muttering things like, 'I bet we can take them' and 'Doesn't look like they brought enough cops' but people ignored him."

That sounds like about the most transparent undercover cop ever.

" President Pelosi" Do you mean" impeachement is off the table and let's give Bush $ 100 billion more for another year of illegal occupation" Pelosi? Can't be the same person, right?

I was there, and counted 109 people in the room, plus press and Secret Service, although I may have been off by a dozen or so. Plus the staff, maybe a half-dozen or so? And a half-dozen Secret Service/security folks. The Oregonian reported 200 people.

Odd how protest crowd counts seem under counted by all sorts of corporate media, and Republican fundraisers overcounted.

Thom

The protest inside was better than we could have expected. After having dinner in the restaurant under the guise of a birthday party complete with red, white and blue "happy birthday" balloons and presents, we moved to a table in the atrium right in front of the ballroom where Rove would be speaking to open the presents. One of the packages contained a jail suit and Rove mask, which I put on. The other packages had handcuffs and signs. I was then handcuffed and marched up to the door of the ballroom where we unfurled a citizens indictment of Rove. The indictment was read very loudly and then we shouted things like "Rove is a liar" and "Rove is a criminal." After we were all done, the police told us we would have to leave, which we did, and walked right into the channel 2 live feed from the event. I don't know why the police allowed us to finish our whole "act" before making us leave but we certainly got our point accross to the hundred or so folks sitting in the atrium as well as the people at the ballroom door (maybe inside too - the door was still open.)

Didn't Willie Week devote a whole issue last year on how Oregon was turning into a "red state?" Yet Preznut Bush's #1 advisor can't fill the small conference room at a Tigard hotel at $60 a plate?

To quote Lynyrd Skynyrd, "oh oh that smell, the smell of death is around you."

Rove is neither a liar nor a criminal. I listened to the enitre speech this morning and found him to be a reasonable man, and what do you know, I didn't see any horns or anything! Democrats would do well to move on and forget Rove. At this point, it's pretty clear that there is nothing to "get" him on, and it's starting to make your party look quite foolish. What I would like to see from the democrat party is a reasonable debate about what is best for America ~ with an emphasis on reasonable.

What do dems have to offer so far? An increase in taxes of about $2,600 per year for the average family (ouch!) and a bunch of yahoos in congress who are actually for failure in Iraq, and who also want to conduct an illegal shadow presidency to influence foreign policy.

Hmmm . . . is this the best way to get normal Americans on your side?

Kari wrote:

"Ignore the troll, people."

That would actually make a good caption for the Rove photo contest...

Ron from Aloha

Called the City of Tigard to see if they are being reimbursed by the republic party of washco or the bushies. "No, this is part of the service we provide to our citizens."