LaRouche backers collect impeachment signatures

Editor's note: The caption for the photo with this story has been clarified to better describe the people in it.

A group of Lyndon LaRouche supporters collected signatures on petitions to impeach President Barack Obama on Monday outside the Adrian post office.

Along with a sign and flyers urging the restoration of legislation that previously kept commercial and investment banks separate, the LaRouche supporters also had a large photograph of Obama wearing an Adolf Hitler-style moustache.

LaRouche has been a part of U.S. politics since the 1970s, running several times for the Democratic Party nomination and once as a U.S. Labor Party candidate. After speaking favorably of Obama after his election, LaRouche has since become critical of the president, especially his plan for health insurance reform, which he has called a “Nazi plan” on the LaRouche Political Action Committee website. LaRouche prefers a single-payer system.

Sharon Williams of Adrian said she and her husband were driving past the post office when the LaRouche supporters were yelling out, “Impeach Obama.”

Williams said she is a registered Democrat and an Obama supporter. She had her husband turn around so she could yell back her support of the president.

“I have absolutely no objection to them being against Obama, but do it the

right way, do it politely, don’t be obnoxious,” she said.

At least one argument broke out between the LaRouche supporters and people stopping at the post office. Kathy Garland of Adrian said in an e-mail that she and her husband, Bill, stopped at the post office while a man who appeared to be in the military was arguing with a LaRouche supporter.

Garland said the military man told the LaRouche supporter the photo of Obama with the Hitler moustache was racist and the LaRouche supporter said he was exercising his right to free speech.

Bill Garland and the military man then exchanged words, Kathy Garland said, with the military man saying he does not oppose having homosexuals in the military and he believes the United States was not founded on Christian beliefs. Bill Garland disagreed with him.

“Obviously my husband as a veteran of the Gulf War understands the importance of chain of command, never wanting to dishonor the presidency, but when you have an administration that seems to ignore the sacred values that so many veterans have given their lives for, they need to be honored by allowing freedom of speech from

any American,” Kathy Garland said in an e-mail.

She said while her husband and the military man argued, other post office patrons shouted agreements with the military man while others signed the LaRouche petitions.

Police were called to the scene at least once during the day, but a report was not available this morning, Adrian Police Chief Terry Collins said.

Sarah Mason of Taylor posted to The Daily Telegram’s Facebook page that LaRouche supporters were at the Blissfield post office last week.