Also this issue:

GOP, Independents At-Large
-Daryl Gale

Green: Machine?
Green Party of Philadelphia fields its first Council at-large candidate.
-Juliet Fletcher

Target: Philly
City ports are on an al-Qaeda hit list. Plus, the scene at Al Mansour.
-Brendan McGarvey

Riding the Railroad
-Mary F. Patel

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

April 3- 9, 2003

city beat

Bending Over For Bush

Bush Whacked: Tom Ridge looks stern as the president says Saddam is bad. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

by Daniel Brook

On Mon., March 31, President Bush came to Philadelphia to discuss port safety and the state of the war in Iraq. Why the president should have to zip up to Philly to talk about the war is a good question. It wouldn’t take a skeptic to theorize that administration political wizard Karl Rove dispatched him (even the Bush-friendly Fox News Channel entertained such speculation). Since becoming president, Bush has visited Pennsylvania about every six weeks. In 2000, Bush lost the Keystone State by less than 5 percent; the GOP wants Pennsylvania in 2004.

Despite the potentially political nature of the visit, even Philadelphia's leading Democrat -- Congressman Bob Brady, chairman of the Democratic City Committee -- welcomed the president. "I wouldn't be here if it had something to do with politics," Brady said. "I never met the president in the 20 times that he's been here, but I'm going to meet him today."

It seems Brady hoped his rolling out the red carpet for the commander in chief would help direct some federal money into Philadelphia. "Hopefully we'll get more money for homeland security to reimburse our city and other cities that have to put money out for that," he said.

Congressman Joe Hoeffel, a Democrat who represents Northeast Philadelphia and the bordering suburbs, like Brady, was willing to welcome Bush as president rather than as a candidate for re-election. "I hope he's here to help better protect the port," Hoeffel said. "I'll take it at face value that that's why he's here."

Outside, the protesters weren't quite as welcoming. When Bush's motorcade sped past, protesters held their cardboard signs and props high.

For Cesar Alvarez, a 51-year-old Vietnam veteran among the protesters, the Iraq war is eerily familiar. Alvarez said that as a teenager signing up for the Marines, he believed "all the lies we were being told about how we were going to be helping people. I was a stupid kid." Today, he said, he doesn't believe the administration line.

A small group of pro-war protesters gathered near the antiwar faction, separated by a line of police. Charles Foster of Delaware County held a sign reading "American (sic) Support Their President." Asked why antiwar protesters outnumbered war supporters, Foster replied, "For every smart person, there's two idiots."

Despite the days-old war in Iraq and "Code Orange" terror alert, Mayor Street opened Chestnut Street in front of Independence Hall to traffic and pedestrians on April 1. Street's administration had initially squabbled with the Park Service over their request that the street be closed indefinitely. Then over the winter, when the mayor came around to their side, a grassroots group of local business owners formed the Coalition to Free Chestnut Street. The group finally convinced Street, over the objections of the Park Service and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, to reopen the street. As a fife and drum band dressed in colonial garb led the way, the mayor removed the barricades and led a procession down the street. The mayor tried to sound a conciliatory note with the Park Service, which temporarily suspended Independence Hall tours after the mayor announced his decision. "This place is bigger than the mayor," Street said. "This place is bigger than the Park Service."

According to Independence National Historical Park spokesman Phil Sheridan, there is no need for reconciliation. "This was not done vindictively," he said, explaining that the Hall will reopen in a few days once a proper screening system is installed.

As with the president's visit, there were plenty of sign-wavers at Independence Hall. Only instead of protesting the war, they protested a court decision to kick would-be First District Council candidate Vernon Anastasio off the election ballot for failing to report his income on his nominating papers.

For those who don't find Fox News "fair and balanced" and don't trust MSNBC or CNN either, there is Free Speech TV, a Colorado-based nonprofit antiwar station broadcasting on cable and over the Internet. The station and its website, www.freespeech.org, feature coverage of the antiwar movement. While the networks embed reporters with the troops, Free Speech TV embeds its reporters with antiwar demonstrators in cities across the country. The station has dispatched crews west to San Francisco and east to Chicago to cover protests.

"Most TV stations don't really show much of the protest," says station spokesperson Linda Mamoun, a Lebanese-American who lived, until recently, in Philadelphia where she had been pursuing a Ph.D. in sociology at UPenn. "There is a great deal of dissent in the country," she says.