President Bush gave a speech today at Monticello, once the home of Thomas Jefferson. As he began speaking, dissenters in the audience became vocal, as is their Constitutional right. Ironically, as the first of them was being dragged away by the Secret Service, the President had the audacity to claim that that was the great thing about America – that Americans have the right to free speech…

…and after about 20 or seconds of it they get dragged away and turned over to local authorities.

You don’t get a free pass if you’re the President. If you speak in public, citizens have every right to make themselves heard, even if it interrupts you. They have the right to protest and the right to dissent. The Constitution, which Mr. Bush swore to uphold and defend, guarantees those rights.

But, as is often the case when Mr. Bush dares to speak to anyone other than members of the military or a pre-screened crowd, those that dared to stand up today and make themselves heard were swiftly and conveniently ushered away.

Ain’t that America. Home of the free.