Someone's Congresswoman - but not yours

I hope Jay Marvin has a podcast of his interview with Triffany Hammond up soon. But this is the story making the rounds:

I just wanted to let you know what happened when a small group of Colorado Dems visited Marilyn Musgraves Loveland office today.

There were about 18 of us there to deliver letters asking her to turn down Bush's Reverse Robin Hood Budget Proposal (there were over 100 letters!).

The organizer of our group called earlier in the week to inform her office that we'd be coming by and that we'd welcome her to answer some of our questions when we delivered the letters.

We gathered in the parking lot before going in. While we were sharing some of our letters with one another a woman came out and explained we were on private property and didn't have a right to be there.

We decided at that point to deliver our letters. We were very quiet going into the building so as not to disturb neighboring businesses and we were very polite going into Musgrave's lobby where we converged to deliver the letters.

A young man greeted us, accepted the letters, assured us they'd get read, acknowledged the phone call earlier in the week indicating we were coming by but explained that Marilyn wasn't there and he didn't have her schedule. Before excusing himself to take a phone call he even went so far as to say, "...you're welcome to stay and I can answer your questions after I take this call."

We didn't stay, we thanked him for his time, took Musgrave's scheduler's phone number and very quietly left the building.

While were meeting on a berm on the outskirts of the parking lot to take a group photo, the police arrived.

One of the officers took our organizer to the side and explained that Musgrave's office called and complained that we "barged in unannounced" and asked that we be removed from the premises.

He allowed us to stay in our group and explained that we had to stay outside the berm in the public area and warned us not to impede public right of way.

We couldn't believe it! In one breath her offices were telling us that they'd received the call and welcomed us to stay and in the other they were calling the cops on us and painting us as storm troopers.

The median age of this group, I'd guess, was 50 or so, we were peaceful, we were professional and we were hoping to express to our representative's office our concerns for the budget that is up for review in DC next week.

Now, I have to ask myself this question. If we'd have gone into her office in the exact same fashion but, instead, with letters of support for Bush's sorry excuse for a budget...would the results have been the same?????

Bullies. Better yet, bullies who think they are better than you.