Republican rally attracts hundreds of protesters

BANGOR – As Air Force One took off into the Bangor sky after the president’s speech Thursday evening, a man in a rubber George W. Bush mask stood alone in a gravel parking lot holding a sign reading, in part, “Deport Bush.”

In some ways it epitomized the wishes of the more than 250 protesters who lined the entrances to Bangor International Airport, where Bush held a campaign rally in the heart of Maine’s hotly contested northern congressional district.

The man in the mask initially introduced himself only as “W,” but later as Tom Connolly, the Portland lawyer and noted Bush detractor. He said his lonely protest was not meant to convert the throngs of Bush faithful leaving the airport.

“It’s just resistance,” he said after pulling up his mask. “Just to let them know this is not a free shot.”

Maine – particularly its 2nd Congressional District – is anything but a sure thing for either Bush or Kerry, according to recent polls, which show Kerry leading by between 3 and 4 percentage points, well within the polls’ margins of error.

While Bush’s afternoon visit drew several thousand people to the outdoor rally on the BIA tarmac, protesters lined sections of Godfrey Boulevard and Union Street holding a plethora of homemade signs – most of which featured anti-war slogans including “Quagmire Accomplished.”

Protests were generally peaceful – there were no arrests – but demonstrators were eager to voice their displeasure with the president to those leaving the event. The resulting exchanges were varied, but most featured alternating chants of “Four more years!” and “Three more months!”

One Bush supporter, stuck in the long line of traffic leaving the event, leaned out his window to echo a common criticism of Kerry.

“[Bush] makes a decision and sticks to it,” the man told protesters with his wife, who looked rather uncomfortable, seated next to him in the car. “When is your guy going to stand for something?”

Earlier in the afternoon, it was a question quietly asked among some protesters, although many praised the Democratic nominee for stepping up his condemnation of the Iraq war in the past week, which featured perhaps the most pointed exchanges between the candidates thus far.

“[Kerry] needs to be more emphatic about what he wants to do,” said Joan Seamans, 70, of Brewer, who, like many at the rally, wore pink to symbolize her desire to give Bush a “pink slip.”

“He needs to speak up,” agreed Ashley Cusik, a 21-year-old student at Bowdoin College, who with her own “pink slip” sign in hand, made the trip from Brunswick to join the protest.

Cusik, a Kerry supporter, had a ticket to see Bush and almost gained entry into the rally, passing several checkpoints, she said. Cusik and a fellow classmate, both known on the Bowdoin campus for their more liberal leanings, they said, were asked to leave, however, after they were recognized by a Republican classmate at the rally.

There were a few harsh exchanges. One protester held a sign reading “Behead Bush,” a reference to the recent beheadings of American prisoners in Iraq. Some Bush supporters leaving the event offered crude gestures and shouts of “scumbags.”

Nine people were removed from the rally for “various acts of disorderly conduct,” but no one was arrested, according to Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards.

The Republican National Committee is in charge of the event and can determine who stays and who leaves, Edwards explained.

In addition, a woman at the pro-Bush rally collapsed and was taken from the event by Bangor Rescue. Her name and condition could not be obtained Thursday night.

Airport officials said they experienced only one significant delay because of the president’s visit.

There is a window before and after Air Force One lands and takes off during which no planes can come into or leave the airport, aircraft dispatcher Tony Alaimo said Thursday night.

A plane headed for Philadelphia had been in a holding pattern near BIA while waiting for Bush to take off, but was forced to go to Portland to refuel before picking up its passengers in Bangor.

Alaimo was unsure how long the flight was delayed but said at 6:15 p.m. that the problem was being taken care of.

NEWS reporter Aimee Dolloff contributed to this report.