A moment of tacky courtesy of Dennis Kucinich



I promised myself way back at the beginning of this caucus that I was not going to bash the other Democratic candidates (I don't consider Lieberman a Democrat).



I am going to take a moment here, however, and say a few things about the supporters of one of the candidates.



Late last night I got word that Martin Sheen and Rob Reiner were going to make a brief stop in Iowa City at one of my favorite restaurants on behalf of my candidate.



Now usually, I don't care much about the meet-the-big-shot moments of politics. After all the experiences with my daughter, these things don't mean much.



I also stick to a firm and fast rule. I will only attend a celebrity event if the celebrity is appearing for my candidate. I would have loved to have seen James Carville four years ago. But he was here for Gore, I was for Bradley. People specifically invited me.



"Oh, John, it'll be OK, you can go, no problem."

"Sorry, I'd love to. But he's Gore, I'm Bradley. I wouldn't feel right."



But this one I wanted to go to. I even wanted to do the geeky-autograph thing. I had a wonderful time at Christmas watching The Princess Bride with my father, brother, and nephew, and I had a vision of giving my little bud a signed copy.



I even made a special sign and a special slogan in honor of Rob's brilliant and hilarious This Is Spinal Tap. Hopefully the phrase "Dean Goes To 11" will catch on.



Well. I took time off work and went down to the event.



The place was packed with Dennis Kucinich supporters. It was sign-war time.



Now, there are some unwritten rules of Sign War. Multi-candidate events, like debates or the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, are fair game. Sign War is expected and you snooze you lose.



Also fair: Visibility and picketing outside an event. Line the whole sidewalk outside the Hamburg Inn with Kucinich signs? Fine.



Events with candidates have a different standard. The candidate could and should expect tough questions, possibly from supporters of other candidates. Buttons for other candidates are acceptable (I usually take mine off), but you don't carry a sign.



But hijacking a non-candidate event by packing it, simply for visibility, is just plain tacky.



Anyway. After about the third time someone tried to block my dorky little DEAN GOES TO 11 sign with a Kucinich sign, I started to feel that unpleasant feeling I get sometimes and I left, bullied out of my own candidate's event.



Did they have a right to be there? Sure, you know me and my First Amendment. But was it right for them to do what they did? Not really. It's a typical move: piggyback onto someone elses event. Steal the work my campaign did to set it up. Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.



I've been busting my buns for Howard Dean for 11 months. And maybe it's selfish or shallow of me. But yeah, I wanted to meet Meathead. I wanted to meet Martin Sheen. They took time to come to my town for my candidate. A lot of people worked hard to make that event happen. And a couple dozen people who decided to be jerks ruined it for me.



Again, I said I wasn't going to bash the candidates. Dennis Kucinich is a decent congressman (except for a lousy record on choice). But Howard Dean started at the same place in the polls: Asterisk. A year later, Dean is in first place, and Kucinich is still Asterisk. Does that tell you anything?