Those three Denver dudes kicked out of one of Bush's phony social security "town hall meetings" have been relentless, and are generating
real heat on the administration.
The door to Rep. Mark Udall's office opens at lunchtime yesterday, and 13 chattering reporters and cameramen stream in.
The Colorado Democrat gawks. "I wish I could get this kind of coverage on my own," he says.
Indeed, the journalistic pack -- from CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and elsewhere -- is interested not in the congressman but in the three people sitting demurely in armchairs in his office: a computer worker, a temp and a non-practicing lawyer.
Individually, they are ordinary citizens and political unknowns. But collectively, they are the Denver Three -- a political sensation in Colorado that is causing agita to a White House that has bested far more sophisticated foes.
The Denver Three's quest: to learn the identity of the "Mystery Man" who, impersonating a Secret Service agent, forcibly removed them from a taxpayer-funded Social Security event with President Bush three months ago because of a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on one of their cars.
They and their attorneys have filed 10 freedom-of-information requests. They won support from eight of Colorado's nine members of Congress and persuaded lawmakers to send letters of protest to the White House and Secret Service. Working from a Denver coffee shop and from a loft apartment, they spend hours each day contacting reporters, producing almost daily news coverage and provoking questions at White House briefings. They have a Web site and bumper stickers, and they got a well-funded liberal group to send them to Washington. Now they're talking about public meetings and a lawsuit.
That was Dana Milbank, by the way. He's not mocking these guys the way he mocked Conyers, so that's progress.
And there's no doubt the three have been deft at working both sides of the aisle on this issue, getting bipartisan support (if grudgingly so from Republicans).
The White House, for its part, is doing its usual efforts to dismiss the issue.
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said all the questions have been "asked and answered."
Of course, the questions may have been asked, but they haven't been answered. We still don't know the White House guidelines for screening participants at those sham meetings. They won't own up to their own policies.