Occupy Iowa Could Get Messy

Reuters
Eric Randall 335 Views Jan 2, 2012

As Iowa's Republicans gear up for tomorrow's caucuses, party officials are making tense plans to deal with potential protesters from the Occupy movement. Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere reports that the official policy toward protesters, if followed, will make for a pretty uneventful confrontation, but some Iowa Republicans don't sound like they're interested in having an uneventful interaction at all. Officially, precincts are told, "Don't give them any special treatment. Any Iowan who arrives should be offered the opportunity to register as a Republican on site and then to vote. Anyone else should be allowed in the allotted observation area," according to Dovere. But then there are people like this Iowa caucus leader, Clel Baudler, who said, "We're just not going to tolerate in rural Iowa what's going on in the big metropolitan areas ... A little thump therapy never hurt anybody."  That attitude is surely not a recipe for quiet coexistence ... Occupiers have already been showing up to campaign headquarters this week with only occasional arrests and disruption. But with tensions elevated on the night of the actual caucus, it doesn't feel like Iowa Republicans and Occupiers are going to mix well together.

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