Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

Operatives for the John McCain campaign expressed their displeasure at a protester who carried a sign that equated McCain with George Bush by behaving just like operatives for George Bush and having her forcibly removed and threatened with arrest.

The incident occurred outside a McCain townhall meeting in Denver on Monday when Carol Kreck was ticketed for trespassing and escorted off the sidewalk at the behest of the McCain campaign.

Her offense? She was carrying a sign that said, “McCain = Bush.”

It is revelatory that McCain operatives see the sentiment expressed in Kreck’s sign as an insult. If her sign had read, “McCain = Reagan,” they probably would have given her a front-row seat…

But in silencing Kreck, the McCain operatives underscored and even compounded Kreck’s message. McCain is indeed just like George Bush, whose minions routinely silence dissent by carefully screening out attendees at public events who might not agree with Bush’s policies.

Bush’s tolerance of opposing views is so low that his handlers often wade into crowds to shield him from seeing protesters by surrounding them with large pro-Bush signs. White House operatives also reroute Bush’s motorcades so that he won’t see protesters who line the streets.

Ironically, one of the most egregious episodes of Bush goons silencing dissenters also occurred in Denver, in March 2005, at a taxpayer-funded townhall session to promote Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security.

Volunteers at the event tossed out Leslie Weise, Karen Bauer, and Alex Young because they had arrived in a car that bore an anti-Bush bumpersticker. Known as the “Denver Three,” testimony given during their civil trial against the government in 2007 revealed that White House officials on the scene had ordered their removal.

The group ProgressiveNowAction has set up a defense fund for Carol Kreck.