I mentioned this morning that Sen. Hillary Clinton was booed for saying she did not support setting a firm date on withdrawal from Iraq. I was sitting on the opposite side of the ballroom as the boo-ers and didn’t see anything amiss, although I heard at lunch that some of the boo-ers were escorted from the hall by security.

Now there’s an article up at Common Dreams that says the boo-ers were from Code Pink.

Fearing that CODEPINK would openly confront Clinton on her pro-war policy, the organizers of Take Back America entered into negotiations with CODEPINK a few days before the conference. “We had lengthy discussions where they pleaded with us not to protest during her keynote breakfast address,” explained Gael Murphy, one of the cofounders of CODEPINK. “Instead, we were told that we could distribute flyers explaining Hillary’s pro-war position to the crowd inside and outside the hotel, and we would be called on to ask her the first question after the speech. We agreed.”

However, when CODEPINK showed up on Tuesday morning in advance of Clinton’s speech, the security guards refused to allow them to pass out flyers, even outside the hotel. “Take Back America violated the agreement from the moment we arrived,” said Ms. Murphy. “Even though we had a table inside the conference, burly security guards blocked us and informed us that it was a private event, that we were not welcome, and they escorted us out of the building. We telephoned the conference staff who then told us that we couldn’t enter the hotel, couldn’t leaflet the event, the hallways—anywhere. They went back on their word and tried to quash even peaceful, respectful dissent.”

A few CODEPINK women did manage to get inside the breakfast, however, as they were legitimate ticket holders. Once inside, the CODEPINK women soon realized that they had been deceived about the second part of the agreement: They would not be allowed to ask the first question, or any question, because Hillary Clinton would not be fielding questions from the audience. “We were really upset that we had been lied to by Take Back America, and that there would be no space at this ‘progressive conference’ to have a dialogue with Hillary Clinton about the most critical issue of our time—the war in Iraq,” said Katie Heald, DC coordinator for CODEPINK. “We got up on our chairs holding up our hands with the peace sign, and were pulled down from the chairs. We tried to take out our banner that said “Listen Hillary: Stop Supporting the War” and it was grabbed from us. And when Hillary started talking about her Iraq strategy, criticizing Bush but not posing a solution, we shouted ‘What are YOU going to do to get us out of Iraq,’ but she ignored us.”

The only banner I saw said “impeach Bush,” but as I said I was on the other side of the ballroom. The “impeach Bush” banner was a product of Veterans for Peace.

Ann Wright, the army colonel and diplomat who resigned over the war, was appalled by the actions of the conference organizers. “They took away leaflets supporting Jonathan Tasini, the anti-war Democrat who is running against Clinton in New York. They searched people’s bags for banners; they even took away an ‘Impeach Bush’ banner from Veterans for Peace. Free speech needs to be upheld by progressives and trying to curtail dissent undercuts the whole purpose of this conference,” said Wright.

Many of the attendees agreed with the position of the protesters, and as Hillary Clinton left the podium, they joined in chanting “Bring the troops home; Stop the war now.” The next speakers, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator John Kerry, got thunderous applause when they called for the troops to come home.

Schmoozing in the hall with other attendees, one senses a lack of interest in a Hillary Clinton candidacy. The MSM has been telling us for years that Hillary is a “rock star” with party activists, but I’m not seeing that here. “She can’t win” seems to be conventional wisdom. Yes, she got an enthusiastic standing ovation at the beginning and ending of her speech, but so did Pelosi and Kerry. And, as I said, the crowd got a lot more fired up by Kerry’s speech than by Clinton’s.

Back to Code Pink’s gripes with the convention — I’d like to hear TBA’s side of this before I get too riled up. It’s very possible the Hilton people, not TBA, were the ones who didn’t want Code Pink handing out leaflets outside the hotel. On the other hand, I don’t see why Code Pink wasn’t allowed to hand out leaflets in the convention area. And I can’t see tossing ticket-holding attendees out of the room for holding up a banner.

Update: See also Hit and Run.