Bailout Bazaar
If the streets of Washington on Wednesday were any indication, folks aren’t too happy with how the federal government is handling this whole financial bailout mess.
Trolling the halls of Congress were the men and women of CODEPINK, doing their part to keep pink casual wear companies in business and to keep Big Business from receiving a $700 billion bailout.
First stop: The Senate office of Chris Dodd, who chairs the senate Banking Committee. “This is just our practice round,” CODEPINK leader Medea Benjamin told her fellow protesters. “We can screw up a little on this one, but we need to have our act together for McCain’s office.” The groups day would take them from Dodd’s office to McCain’s to that of Barack Obama.
As they wended their through the Russell Office Building, they whipped out a Greatest Hits collection of chants:
“No Bailout For Wall Street Fat Cats!”
“Ain’t No Power Like The Power of the People and the Power of the People Want No Bailout!”
“This is atrocious!”
“This is a heist!”
“Bailout over my dead body!”
Even Benjamin had to admit that her group was becoming known for protesting, well, anything and everything. “If we’re not protesting one thing, we’re protesting something else,” she told one Capitol Police officer. “We’re going to keep you running today!”
And so they did: Barely ten minutes into their efforts, Capitol Police confronted the group in Dodd’s office. “If you outburst like this, you’ll be arrested for disorderly conduct,” said one officer. Ten minutes later, a similar scene outside McCain’s office: “You’re breaking the law,” said officer David Pendelton. Why? “Because you’re singing and demonstrating.” So just stop singing? “Yup, that’ll solve it.”
Across town, you could also get your protest fix at the “Billionaires for the Bailout” event sponsored by D.C. Jobs with Justice. Dressed in three-piece suits and ball gowns, organizers held mock interviews in Farragut Square with role players who had “lost their houses,” before taking their 10-minute skit to the sidewalk in front of three banks on the square — Citibank, Chevy Chase Bank and Bank of America.
“Us billionaires need your tax dollars,” they chanted. “Thank you for getting out of the way so we can have cheap labor.”
