Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)
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So it turns out that this is the third election in a row that Parlock has complained publicly that a renegade Democrat has ripped a sign out of his (or his daughter's hands). Funny how this always happens to him, huh?
- Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, August 27, 1996, Page 3C
Phil Parlock's experience was less calm.
The Huntington man said he was knocked to the ground by a Clinton supporter when he tried to display a sign that read "Remember Vince Foster," the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in a Washington, D.C., park. His death has become the subject of much debate among Clinton opponents.
"It must have been a strict Democrat who did this," Parlock said, feeling the red abrasions on his face. "Everyone with the exception of him was real peaceful about our protest."
Parlock said some of the crowd tried to make other anti-Clinton demonstrators feel unwelcome. He estimated that about 150 Dole supporters attended the rally, but their signs couldn't be seen for most of the rally.
Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, October 28, 2000, pg. 1A:
Phil Parlock didn't expect to need all 12 of the Bush-Cheney signs he and his son Louis smuggled in their socks and pockets into the rally for Vice President Al Gore.
But each time they raised a sign, someone would grab it out of their hands, the two Huntington residents said. And sometimes it got physical.
"I expected some people to take our signs," said Louis, 12. "But I did not expect people to practically attack us."
The two said they didn't go to the Friday morning rally to start trouble.
"I came to support Bush and try to change some people's minds," Louis said.
But it gets better. The man in that photo that (allegedly) tore the sign out of his little daughter's hands bears a striking resemblence to his sons:
As
Atrios pointed out, the guy wins the Father Of The Year award for enlisting his little girl in this scheme.
eta: Here's a description of him from someone who apparently knows him, on the board linked by Atrios:
- Phil has an incredible ability to provoke anyone in any situation very quickly. I've seen him do it in situations that needed no provocation on several occasions. It's just his nature. I think Phil set it up to cause as big a stink as possible. That's also his nature.
That kid's going to need some therapy, or something.
