Buckley contradicts Shea-Porter; acknowledges she was removed from Bush event

Confusion continues to reign regarding what exactly happened during a George W. Bush town hall event in 2005. Was Carol Shea-Porter, then a private citizen, removed from the event or wasn’t she?

Not even Democrats can agree.

In a major counter-offensive against assertions that she was removed from the Bush town hall event for being disruptive, Shea-Porter herself denied the charge categorically in an interview with the Portsmouth Herald this week.

“I was proud to be there to stand up for senior citizens, but there were no disruptions and no rudeness and I wasn’t removed,” Shea-Porter told the Herald. “If it happened, don’t you think there would have been photos or video or news stories from that day? There aren’t because it didn’t happen.”

But Democratic State Chairman Ray Buckley claims Shea-Porter was indeed removed in a recent posting on a leftwing blog, contradicting Shea-Porter’s account.

“Our congresswoman was removed because even silent dissent was never allowed at any event with Bush,” writes Buckley of the liberal blog BlueHampshire.com.

Republicans pointed out late last week that Shea-Porter herself contradicted her own assertions that she was not removed. In the past she has claimed that she was thrown out of the event “like a drunk being thrown out of a bar.” She also claimed in the Portsmouth Herald that she had been removed from the event.

The issue has earned new relevence because Shea-Porter has been vocally critical of protesters at her own town hall events. She has dismissed opponents of health reform as “tea baggers” and has claimed that Democrats never behaved as Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) behaved when he shouted “you lie” at President Barack Obama during a recent joint session of Congress. A vocal critic was removed from a recent Shea-Porter town hall event, though accounts differ as to whether he was removed because he was disruptive or because Shea-Porter has him escorted out.

Shea-Porter has made a series of incorrect and sometimes bizarre statements in recent weeks. She has stated, for example, “many of my constituents would love to wait in line for medical care.” She justifies the House bill to overhaul America’s health care system by saying, “the Constitution did not cover everything.”

Recent polls show Shea-Porter slipping dramatically in the face of a tough challenge from Manchester’s Republican Mayor Frank Guinta.