Just as firebrand author Ann Coulter was addressing a packed ballroom on just how detrimental left-of-center protesters are to the national interest, several hundred left-of-center protesters descended on the gates of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel to voice their displeasure with the Conservative Political Action Conference going on inside.
“Really?” one CPAC attendee said as she walked down the driveway encounter several hundred demonstrators chanting at the top of their lungs. “If we did this to one of their conferences, they would never leave.”
The Metropolitan Police Department was ready for the scene, with a few dozen uniformed cops trying to clear the driveway of protesters and reporters alike, both of whom were repeatedly threatened with arrest. Down on Woodley Road NW, the crowd—mostly members of local labor unions—shouted out many of the slogans that have been made popular by the Occupy Wall Street movement. “We are the 99 percent!” was the most frequent refrain.
“We’re bringing attention to the 99 percent,” said Inocencio Quinones, an organizer with the advocacy group ONE DC, which also supplied a large contingent. “They’re”—referring to the people attending the annual right-wing confab—”not paying their fair share of taxes. We’re paying more than our fair share.”
Though the protest was flush of T-shirts and placards representing steelworkers, teamsters and other labor groups, representatives of the Occupy movement made sure to add their brand of creative disruption to the mix. One group, from New York, showed up in baseball jerseys reading “Tax Dodgers” in script similar to that of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Accompanying the bat-wielding squad was another protester who wore a papier-mâché catcher’s glove marked “Mitt,” a reference to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s recent disclosures that he paid an effective tax rate of about 14 percent on $21.7 million of income in 2010 and that he until recently held bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
As the protest continued, more and more CPAC attendees poured out of the Marriott to watch the unfolding events. Few were impressed.
“I think that it’s kind of absurd in a time of depression to protest in support of failed policies,” said Thadius Main, a student at American University. Main, wearing a pinstriped suit, sported a Ron Paul lapel pin and hoisted a sign in support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has been the target of many labor-organized protests for his measures to weaken the collective-bargaining power of public-employee unions.
“They’re doing their best to instigate class warfare,” Main said. “I’m a business-class libertarian.”
As demonstrators pushed up the driveway, MPD officers continued to warn them—and several dozen journalists—they would be arrested if they did not clear the path for oncoming police vehicles. On an adjacent sidewalk, more CPAC guests looked on in apparent disgust.
“I think someone needs to get a picture of the contrast of the people in suits and the protesters,” said Alexandra Pfadt, a student at the University of North Carolina. A man describing himself as “CPAC security” approached Pfadt and her friends and advised them to head back inside, saying “tear gas is bad for your complexion.”
Eventually, police were able to get the demonstrators to retreat back on to Woodley Road without much of a fight. Beneath a large inflatable of an obese, suit-clad feline clutching a worker, a pair of steelworkers held a large banner announcing their union pride.
“It’s all about the little man,” one of them said. “The whole purpose is to get some equality.”
Though many flocked to the mock baseball team chiding Romney, by far the most boisterous display was shown by a burly fellow who laid down in the middle of the street. Clad in a leather jacket, motorcycle boots and ski googles, he pumped his fists in the ear with each beat of nearby protesters’ drums. His name?
“I’m a wookie from another planet and I’m here to help these people save the planet!” he exclaimed. His name? Chewbacca, the tall, hirsute sidekick in Star Wars.
A few feet away was Mike Golash, an older man who’s been part of the Occupy D.C. protest group. Though Democrats are criticized several times per second inside CPAC, Golash held a sign castigating both major political parties.
“The Democrats and Republicans both represent the 1 percent,” he said. “They have different rhetoric, but they both serve the 1 percent.”
As I was finishing my interview with Golash, a blogger from the conservative website Pajamas Media butted in. When he was asked to wait a moment, he threatened to “rip your fucking arms off,” speaking to me.
About 2 p.m. the protesters started walking back toward their staging ground near the National Zoo. The Examiner’s Aubrey Whelan reported that perhaps as many as 15 protesters actually made their way inside the Marriott, but were promptly escorted out.
Back inside the ballroom shortly after, Laura Ingraham, another specialist in conservative invective, joked that while the CPAC attendees couldn’t see the Occupy protesters, “you can smell them.”
