Karl Rove battles protesters at Beverly Hills book-signing

Antiwar protesters crashed a Beverly Hills book-signing by former Bush White House figure Karl Rove, creating a chaotic scene that ended the event early.

A group of protesters arrived at the Saban Theatre, where Rove was signing "Courage and Consequences: My Life As a Conservative In The Fight" to an audience of about 100 people.

The incident was captured on tape by CBS 2 News. The video shows protesters coming up to Rove, calling him a war criminal, among other things.

But Rove fought back. "With all due respect, this goes to show the totalitarianism of the left. They don't believe in dialogue, they don't believe in the 1st Amendment," he told the crowd."

At one point, Rove told a protester, "Get the heck out of here.... This man is a lunatic."

Rove was eventually forced to leave the stage, and those who came to hear him speak did not get their books signed.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Karl Rove. Credit: Associated Press

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Families to address serial killer Alcala as judge decides on death penalty

Rain to return to L.A. area as early as Wednesday

Bus, tanker crash ties up westbound 210 Freeway

L.A. man who set beloved homeless man on fire with flare pleads guilty to murder

Comments

[sitdownandbequiet]

There's a beautiful absurdity in Rove quoting the constitution when he has proved so often that he cares so little for it.

[Steve]

cool, Rove is the cause of all our economic woes. He should be paying back America for all the pain he's caused.

[Independent]

Where were the cops to haul them out of there? Sounds like trespassing to me. Perhaps the agenda is to prevent conservatives from congregating. What has this country come to?

[Roy G. Biv]

I drove past the Saban Theater yesterday afternoon and saw the words "Karl Rove" on the marquee. I thought it must have been an ironic alternative band name, like The Dead Kennedys (it sure sounds as ominous). Darn, if I knew it was "the" Karl Rove, I would have been there picketing, too.

[Hoot]

At least they didn't throw eggs or bricks like the other side.

[My opinon means nothing]

Soooo Funnny! I have a feeling this is only the begining!

[Winski]

So, the lump known in most circles as turdblossom gets riled when someone calls him a WAR CRIMINAL ??

SO WHAT! HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL... The sooner everyone that comes in contact with this loser knows he should be in prison in the HAGUE, the better off we as a nation will be.

[My Truth Hurts]

If anyone is totalitarian and deaf to rational dialogue it is Karl Rove. How people even walk on the same side of the street as him without feeling shame goes to show just how far this great nations morals have fallen.

[JimBob]

Oh, yeah, Rove is all for "dialogue" when he's getting razzed. Where was the dialogue when we were pointing out that there was no credible evidence of WMD's, that Bush/Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld had decided to invade Iraq even before 9/11, etc.?

[EastHollywood]

Karl is such an intelligent man. Of course protesting the man who lied about the motives of a war that has killed 4,000 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis is against the 1st amendment. The 1st amendment only applies to things you like!

[pasadena jag]

Great! Carl Rove - this horrible little man should be tried for war crimes along with the loathsome George W. Bush and the tedious Dick Chaney. These three ghouls ruined America. Keep them in Texas where they belong.

[Gaucho420]

You're either with us or you're against us. Old Europe has been surpassed by new Europe. Freedom Fries and not French Fries. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Karl Rove is a buffoon and his history of utter failures in policy and decision speak for themselves.

[Pete]

I'm sure he'll have a warm welcome here in Az. where he's scheduled. Probably have McCain fawning for a signed copy - maybe Palin will come back for one too.

[Jester of the Apocalypse]

What a crybaby . . . perfect example of someone living in a right-wing bubble of hubris, and is shocked when someone pops it. What kind of conservative moron has a book signing in lefty Beverly Hills anyways? Next stop: Berkeley?

[lo9an]

Mr. Rove, you are a War Criminal!

[Baronpilot]

Yeah! Let's hear it for the protesters! Good Job!

This story made my day!

[slappin]

huh, sounds pretty much like those healthcare town hall meetings? i was sure karl would have approved of that...

[savvydude]

Thugs and fascists. Oh, they will demand their right to protest but will never admit that they are stomping on the rights of others to peacefully assemble.

Where were the police? And where are the Democrat leaders denouncing the "uncivil" tone of these radicals?

[michael]

What IS the price for doing everything he could to destroy our country?

[Realist]

Rove is a fraud---courage? Don't make me laugh. Anyone who would buy his book is a fool.

[independent skeptic]

I wonder what would have happened had someone on the left been not allowed to speak due to interruptions from a raucous crowd. I suspect the violators would have been arrested, as these folks should have been.

I understand why people dislike Rove, but the minute we say it's okay for a crowd to shut down speech, we've lost our way as a country. Peaceful picketing is cool and it sends the message without coming across as part of the lunatic fringe.

[Tombo3]

I hope they follow this war criminal all around the country. This man should be in jail for the atrocities he committed on our country and on fellow human beings. He's a disgrace, he's a liar and he's one of the most evil men this country has ever seen.

[yasmina]

Whether or not one likes or dislikes Karl Rove, this display of total disrespect is something that has become typical with the looney side of the democratic party. Our party has become one of "do as I say, not as I do"... The other 50 plus percent of the country have no opinion according to this new democratic party..,. These loonies give democrats a bad name and too bad they were not arrested as they should have been for assault. It is all to hypocritical.. If you disagree with rove, try to have an intelligent debate with him, Ah... but therein lies the problems... he is far to smart for most of them, that is why they resort to stupidities. AND they don't do their homework, getting the facts all wrong....

[Alice]

I attended Rove's talk and I was completely disgusted by the actions of the protesters. Their behavior was appalling. Agree or disagree, no one has the right to disrupt a speaker who was invited to speak (which Rove was, by a local Beverly Hills group). The event was well-attended and most of the audience was interested in what he had to say. A small group (maybe five or six) people started shrieking and disrupting the talk during the Q and A session. They were abusing free speech, not exercising it.

[Mark Hansen]

You liberals sure do have a huge amount of repressed hate for Republicans. Remember it was a Democrat that entered us into a war that we should have never been in, World War 2. That killed 500,000 American, not to mention the millions of Japanese and Germans we killed and it was a Democrat that killed almost 200,000 people in Japan with Nuclear weapons. That war was between the Europeans. Hawaii should have never been part of the United States. It was stolen from the native people just as the North American continent was stolen from the Native North Americans. Maybe Karl and Bush were to blame for those deaths. Remember we can thank a Democrat for the funding of the invention of the Nuclear Bomb.