Tempest in a T-shirt: ejections, apologies

Amid the uproar over two women removed by Capitol police, Rep. C.W. Bill Young delivers a fiery speech in the House waving his wife's shirt.By BILL ADAIR, Times

Washington Bureau ChiefPublished February 2, 2006


[AP photo]
Rep. C.W. Bill Young displays the T-shirt that led to his wife being asked to leave during the State of the Union address Tuesday. "I think there is some kind of culture here that needs to be corrected," he said of the Capitol police.

WASHINGTON - It was a coincidence of casual wear: two women in T-shirts ejected from President Bush's State of the Union address.

One happened to be the wife of an influential Republican congressman. The other was one of Bush's biggest critics.

On Wednesday, the fallout began on the floor of the House, where C.W. Bill Young, one of the most mild-mannered members of Congress, blasted the Capitol police for ejecting his wife for wearing a shirt that said "support the troops - defending our freedom."

"Shame, shame," Young said.

It echoed throughout the blogosphere. Cindy Sheehan, who was arrested for a shirt that said - "2,245 dead. How many more?" - wrote that she was seeking attention by listing the body count in Iraq.

Other bloggers chimed in. Some said the police had no right to eject the women. Others groused that the women were disrespectful at a formal event.

By day's end, the extraordinary happened: The police dropped the charge against Sheehan and apologized to both women. "Neither guest," said Capitol police Chief Terrance Gainer, "should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts."

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Beverly Young is a stay-at-home mom who doesn't stay home much.

She spends her days visiting wounded Marines and soldiers and collecting donations for them.

She often can be seen in the hallways of the Capitol wearing T-shirts with messages that support the military.

Sheehan is at the other end of the spectrum, a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and a frequent critic of President Bush. She recently threatened to run against Sen. Dianne Feinstein if the California Democrat did not support a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Sheehan was ushered out of the chamber Tuesday night after she unzipped her jacket and exposed the shirt. She wrote in her blog that she wore the shirt "to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in awhile they would show me and I would have the shirt on."

She said she plans to sue the government. "It is time to take our freedoms and our country back," she wrote.

Beverly Young said she was watching the beginning of the speech when she was asked to leave. In the hallway, police officers told her that she was "demonstrating" because she wore the shirt. They refused to let her back in unless she wore something else.

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On Wednesday morning, Rep. Young, a Republican from Indian Shores, delivered a fiery speech on the House floor while waving the now-famous shirt. He accused the Capitol police of overreacting and lying about what happened.

"Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," Young said. "Shame, shame."

After the speech, reporters asked Young how he felt about Sheehan being arrested.
He said the same rules should apply to Sheehan that apply to his wife. "If she was just sitting there wearing a shirt, I don't think she should be kicked out."

Beverly Young said she did not consider a support-the-troops shirt to be a political statement and that it was different from Sheehan's messages.

She said of Sheehan: "I disapprove of everything she stands for."

Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, said Beverly Young should not have been ejected.

"The rules are very clear that you cannot demonstrate from the gallery. Whether a shirt that says "support the troops' is demonstrating - I don't think so, particularly when it is a spouse of a member," Shaw said.

The fact that the incidents came from both ends of the political spectrum prompted plenty of debate by conservative and liberal bloggers.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, of the liberal blog Daily Kos, wrote that T-shirt incidents showed "This is no longer a partisan affair. Bush will restrict the free speech rights of anyone that might upstage his carefully constructed propaganda efforts."

A blogger named Wayne Besen wrote that "Both women deserved to be removed from the State of the Union. It was downright tacky for them to wear T-shirts to this formal event. Imagine if the annual address degenerated into a T-shirt slogan fest, with pet messages on the shirts of lawmakers?"

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Don Ritchie, the associate historian of the Senate, said Congress has had rules prohibiting demonstrations in the House and Senate chambers ever since women disrupted a 1916 speech by President Woodrow Wilson by unfurling a banner that said "Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?" Rep. Young's office received many phone calls and e-mails from people who believed his wife had the right to wear the shirt, while others said she should have been charged with a crime as Sheehan was.

Young said he was angry about the incident because the police Tuesday night had insisted she had chosen to leave the chamber. The police also said she was wearing a jacket and opened it to expose her shirt.

"They lied about what she did," Young said.

He complained to House Republican leaders and to White House aide Karl Rove. The White House declined to comment on the incident.

Young said Wednesday night that he was happy to got an apology but that he and Beverly still weren't satisfied.

"I think this is more serious than just a single incident," Young said. "I think there is some kind of culture here that needs to be corrected."

He said police told Beverly the law prohibited her from wearing the T-shirt but then realized there was no such law.

"They really ought to know what they are talking about," he said. "Beverly is still very unhappy. She was publicly humiliated. She doesn't like that and I don't like that."

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report, which included material from the Associated Press. Washington bureau chief Bill Adair can be reached at 202 463-0575 or adair@sptimes.com THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

BEFORE THE SPEECH BEGAN: Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan unzips her jacket, revealing a T-shirt that says "2,245 dead. How many more?" She is ushered out of the House chamber, handcuffed and charged with unlawful conduct.

15 MINUTES INTO THE SPEECH: Beverly Young, wearing a shirt that says "support the troops - defending our freedom," is asked to leave the gallery. Police tell her that her message is an unlawful demonstration and that she cannot return.

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