This sucks.

Capitol Police are dropping charges against Cindy Sheehan, which only gives credibility to this whole “They were trying to silence me!” nonsense.

Look, if she broke the law prohibiting demonstrations or creating a disturbance in the Capitol, she should be charged. If she didn’t break the law, she never should have been arrested to begin with.

I’m a huge supporter of law enforcement, but I would expect our Capitol Police to know the law. As a result of this, Cindy Sheehan can now bray to her heart’s content about being silenced, blaming it all on the president instead of the people who actually arrested her.

Marshall adds: I think you’re being a little hard on the cops, Cam. From what we know, they dealt with the same circumstance equitably regardless of the offender. Remember, the other person who got escorted was a Congressman’s wife, and spouses have special pins that they wear to identify them as such. The cops knew exactly who these people were when they showed the t-shirt wearers the door.

As for Cindy’s braying, I thought you were backing her Senate campaign so that more people could hear how loony she really is. Let her bray. The only thing it’s going to get her is hoarse.

Cam: Damn it. You’re going to make me sound like a Kossack here in my response. First off, the Capitol police didn’t treat the two in the same fashion. Only one was arrested. Mrs. Congresswoman just had to leave the room.

Secondly, while I do want Cindy Sheehan to run for Senate (namely for the humor value), I don’t anything done or said that could give her an ounce of credibility.

Am I being too hard on the police? Probably. The chief says it’s his fault that the officers didn’t know the law. So I’ll be hard on the chief and blame him. But is it really asking too much of our law enforcement officers to, you know, know the law?

Marshall: Cam, you’re thinking like an inside-the-beltway guy. Time to send you back to Oklahoma for re-education.

I think the vast majority of regular Americans look at Cindy’s antics just the way I do. That she got arrested was too bad, but what was she doing wearing a t-shirt to the State of the Union? Remember, people were already rolling their eyes at her. This episode just spurs another round of eye rolling.

But I agree with you — the police should know the law. But according to the Washington Post this morning, the cops arrested Sheehan because she refused to leave after being asked to do so. Mrs. Young complied with their request to leave. So that explains the slight variance in treatment.

Cam: Hey now, calling me an “inside the beltway guy” is a low blow. Is that my punishment for referring to you as a fashionista yesterday? Of course the vast majority of Americans look at Cindy Sheehan as a clown. But Sheehan now has something else to trumpet, and we’ll get another round of sympathetic media.

By the way, I couldn’t find in the Washington Post article where Sheehan refused to leave. I saw the quote from Sheehan saying she unzipped her jacket, heard the officer yell “Protestor!”, and haul her away.

If you think this episode was bad… just wait until next year’s SOTU. Now that the police have said “okay, we were wrong”, I expect the gallery to be full of guests of Charlie Rangel, John Conyers, etc. wearing “Impeach Bush” shirts. By refusing to take a stand, the Capitol Police have just created a circus.

Jim jumps in: I have little doubt that there’s an unwritten policy of one rule for members of Congress and their spouses, and another for everyone else. Back in my covering-the-Hill days, primarily 1998-1999 with some intermittent 2001-2004, I recall seeing members of Congress enter the building without passing through the metal detector, and I think I remember a member of Congress get a guest waved through security with a simple, “He’s with me.” Of course, this was before 9/11, but after the shootings outside DeLay’s office in 1998.

The House has the right to make the rules within its own chambers; if they say no t-shirts with sloganeering, then that rule ought to be enforced. Of course, I agree with Cam - it’s embarrassing when the Capitol Police don’t know the laws they can enforce. Come on, guys, it’s only your job.

Will we see some screaming protesting maniac at next year’s SOTU? It will happen some year, I predict. It’s not entirely unprecedented for a political event to become hostage to screaming protesters, the real-life equivalent of blog trolls. There were several screaming maniacs during the President’s speech at the GOP convention in 2004. And I seem to recall posters in D.C. leading up to it, inviting folks to come to New York to protest… to protest… well, there the poster got odd. It wasn’t a specific policy or decision by Bush or the Republican Party. The rally seemed to just protest… the existence of Republicans. The SOTU will become another political shoutfest unless the Capitol Police lay down the law with these precedent-setting offenders. But first, they have to know what the heck they’re supposed to be enforcing.