"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
...
I'm pretty sure that the decision to provide security to candidates (not
senators per se) lies with the Secret Service and could not be refused.

SS protection can be refused. Nixon, for example, released the SS several
years after he resigned. I'm not sure if he retained private bodyguards, or
whether he just gave up on having bodyguards altoghether, but it does show
that a "principal" can tell the SS to get lost if he or she wants to.

But if I were the "principal", I certainly wouldn't want to. Both Kerry and
Edwards are entitled to SS protection, and they are wisely making use of it.
I'm reasonably sure that Edwards is now entitled to make use of any security
arrangement that Cheney has at his disposal. To be sure, Vice-Presidential
TFRs aren't anything close to the pain in the butt that Presidential ones
are, but even a baby-TFR -- which Edwards certainly could have had if his
people had asked for it -- would have been enough to ruin Jay's whole trip.
So my own personal take on Jay's (very well-written) story is that we should
be thankful that Kerry-Edwards is at least holding off on releasing the TFR
hounds right now. An hour's wait in the FBO lobby is a pain, but not nearly
as painful as having to cancel the entire trip.

If I had been in your shoes, Jay, my own reaction would have been to treat
the security people with over-the-top politenes and kid gloves. As a
resident of a swing-state (Pennsylvania), I can personally attest to how
over-blown presidential security has gotten and how totally disruptive it
can be to our day-to-day lives. On July 4th, of all days, I couldn't even
walk down a street three blocks from a scheduled campaign event, despite the
fact that I had tickets to and was on my way to attending that very same
event. Heck, the event even was due to start for another two hours! What
on earth was I, with a 3-year-old in tow, going to do three blocks away, two
hours before the speech that would put anyone in any danger whatsoever? So
instead my entire family, including my visibly pregnant wife, had to walk
several blocks out of our way for no good reason at all. I think it's gone
way too far.

But I also suspect that everytime the SS encounters an irate pilot in an
FBO, it just feeds their justification mill for keeping all these "crazy
people in little planes" as far away as possible from the people they are
protecting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that you went nutso on
the SS in the FBO lobby. I'm just saying that they have a certain
pre-conceived mindset concerning GA, and that anything you did short of meek
and apologetic acceptance is quite likely to be twitsted into a
justification of this misbegotten mindset.


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.742 / Virus Database: 495 - Release Date: 8/19/2004