Protest remains an important right in health-care debate

In November 2000, a small group of vote counters in Florida's Miami-Dade County protested the canvassing board's decision to move into a private room and recount only a handful of votes without media or public monitoring. The left promptly dubbed this action the "Brooks Brothers Riot." I was a part of that group, and I remain proud of those constitutionally guaranteed efforts to this day.

All this should be just a part of history now. But it's back in the news again, thanks to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who recently compared this month's town-hall protesters to the "Brooks Brothers Brigade." Gibbs' glib remark opened the floodgates. Liberals everywhere have gleefully piled on, decrying the phenomenon of thousands of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights at town-hall meetings as conservative thug tactics.

A former White House chief of staff went so far as to call the past and current protests "fascist." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls them "un-American," and left-wing Web sites and cable anchors have carried the chorus, as well.

Gibbs and his well-schooled echo chamber seem to have no qualms about smearing the protesters and misrepresenting their expressions of concerns as manufactured "astro-turf" events. But it just won't wash.

As a high White House official has noted, facts are a stubborn thing. Here are the facts, starting with November 2000. At the time, I worked for a campaign committee. I was paid nearly $20,000 a year while living in one of the most expensive cities in America. I couldn't yet afford Brooks Brothers; those were discount threads I was sporting. Then, as today, I was hungry to participate in governance and the electoral process — just like a young community organizer named Barack Obama. Yes, I was flown down to Florida to count votes, just as Democratic congressional and campaign staffers were. No, nobody paid me to protest.

In fact, nobody requested we do so. Protest was a natural civic inclination, prompted when we saw democracy being taken in a mischievous direction. And no, not once did anyone ever purport to be a local citizen or disguise their identities. It would've been silly of me not to take off my sport coat if that were the case.

After several of us were identified in the Washington Post, I received countless death threats and was labeled a "brown shirt" on several left-wing Web sites. We were vilified for continuing our political careers back home.