Reply #36: I can understand the symbolism, but

[Ivory_Tower]

the problem is the potential of creating an image of intolerant thugs "shouting down" an oh-so-helpless poor little speaker. The right-wing is very good at hypocritically playing the "we're just victims" angle, so people have to be careful about things like this back-firing.

I'm reminded of one of the early chapters of Brock's "Blinded By The Right" -- he claims that a pivotal event that led him to the "dark side" was the shouting down of Jeanne Kirkpatrick at a college lecture she was giving. He felt that proved the liberal community was intolerant.

Granted this was an RNC event, not an open college forum, so the parallels aren't exact (and as far as I know nobody threw fake blood on the stage during Rove's speech). Plus, this is Rove, who I can't stand, so it's hard for me to feel sympathy for him. Nonetheless, I'm not going to encourage this sort of thing, either.