Eugene weekly., August 19, 2004, Page 10, Image 10

John Kerry with Francisco Paz, Jeff Sirianni, Josh Therien and Todd Wallenbech at Marché Aug. 12.
looked old enough to vote and some of them
absolutely weren’t. They shouted insults about
Kerry, but their young voices were so screechy
you couldn’t understand them. They sang the
Star Spangled Banner and America the
Beautiful, badly. And they yelled insults
across the road at the presumed Kerry support-
ers, a few of whom returned them. But as
demonstrations go, it wasn’t much. I speak as
a veteran observer of real demonstrations —
like riots. Close questioning of the presumed
Kerry supporters revealed that a lot of them
were there out of curiosity, hoping to see
Possibly the Next President but not yet sup-
porters. Some of the Bush-Cheney people had
really small children with them. At that time of
night, wouldn’t you think the Family Values
folk would have had the kiddies home in bed?
I digress.
Tales of baseball, tobacco and Possibly the Next President.
BY FRED TAYLOR
J
ohn Kerry slept in my room on his visit
to Eugene Thursday night. Well, I think
he did, maybe. I’m certain he slept on
the same floor of the Valley River Inn as I
would have slept on, but didn’t. Let me ex-
plain.
For years when my wife, Georga, and I
have visited Eugene we’ve stayed at the
Valley River Inn. It is an attractive place, with
rooms overlooking the river. Recent years
we’ve stayed on the third floor, which has a
special attraction. Although it costs more,
you get chits for a discount for breakfast and
after 5 pm you can walk down the hall and get
a free drink or two and some snacks. And in
some of the rooms you can smoke.
So a couple of weeks before our latest
visit I made a reservation for one of those
rooms, and even got a confirmation. But
when we showed up, that room not only was-
n’t available — “We had a problem with that
room,” the reservation clerk told me, but
wouldn’t explain further — and neither were
any other rooms on the third floor.
I was miffed, and showed it, but took a
second-floor room that doesn’t offer the dis-
count breakfast, the free drinks or allow
smoking. (Now all you anti-smoking folk
saying, “Serves him right,” just hold on.
Tobacco plays an important role in this story)
Thursday about 6 pm we went to the
Emeralds game. It was a good game; there
was some swell infield defense (only one
error) and two double plays, and they won 9-
7. They certainly didn’t look like a team that
had lost 34 games.
I digress.
We got back to the hotel about 10 pm and
there were about 50 people standing around
the main entrance, obviously waiting for
something or somebody. When I spotted a
tiny group of people holding Bush-Cheney
signs, all became clear: John Kerry, Possibly
the Next President, was expected and he and
his staff had taken over the entire third floor.
So we stood around, too. And stood, and
stood. The rumor, later confirmed by the
mainstream press, was that he was having a
late dinner at Marché, which is the sort of
place you’d expect Possibly the Next
President to eat.
In the meantime, the Bush-Cheney folk
demonstrated, sort of. At one point there were
a dozen in the group, and none of them
‘When you see the flashing lights, I’d move across the driveway.
Because if they see somebody standing near the front of the motorcade
holding something in his hand, they’ll probably hit you.
Because that’s what they do.’ — Secret Service guy
10 AUGUST 19, 2004
FRED TAYLOR. HE MOVED ACROSS THE DRIVEWAY.
KERRY SLEPT HERE
The first exciting thing that happened was
a Budget rent-a-truck pulling up in front of
the main entrance to the inn. On the side it
said something to the effect “Don’t Use
Packing Tape for Dangerous Practical
Jokes,” which seems like good advice. (My
notes are a little unclear on the exact word-
ing).I was pleased to see the Democrats were
using a Budget truck; shows good fiscal
sense.
The truck was jammed with luggage,
which was all unloaded. One of the most
bulky said “CBS News — Urgent,” so you
knew this was the real deal, not just someone
moving. And you could tell it was a presiden-
tial campaign trip because a little while after
the truck was unloaded and left it came back,
and about half the luggage was loaded back
on. Obviously someone has sent word that
the stuff wasn’t going to be used tonight and
take it back to the Kerry airplane out at the
airport.
After that excitement, we stood around
some more. The next big excitement was
when the press bus arrived and about 50 of
the grottiest people you ever saw got off.
They were so grotty I knew it was the press.
But I didn’t see any famous faces, although
that’s not too surprising. Since I rarely watch
television I wouldn’t have recognized them
anyway.
But it wasn’t the press bus after all; it was
a group of baseball fans from LaCrosse,
Wisc., on a tour of baseball stadiums and
games across the country. No wonder they
looked grotty; they’d been in eight states and