Worker fired for heckling president

WASHINGTON -- Glenn Hiller was not surprised by the scattered screams and curses he heard after he heckled President Bush at a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday. But the Berkeley Springs, W.Va., resident never expected what happened the next morning, when he was fired from his $35,000-a-year job as a graphic designer.

He said his boss at Octavo Designs, a Frederick, Md.-based advertising company, told him he had offended a client who provided tickets to the rally.

"She told me my actions reflected badly on the company," Hiller said. He said he had worked at Octavo for five months.

Hiller, 35, said he waited for lulls in the president's speech to shout questions and comments challenging what he called half-truths in Bush's statements. He said he asked Bush about the benefits of outsourcing jobs, justifications for the war in Iraq, and inspectors' inability to find weapons of mass destruction there. He said that at one point, he shouted, "Would you sacrifice your daughters to liberate Iraq?"

Hiller said he then was escorted from the event at Hedgesville High School in Berkeley County, W.Va.

Hiller's boss at Octavo, Sue Hough, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Sandy Sponaugle, who gave Hiller the ticket for the restricted event, said his behavior was out of line and made the crowd uncomfortable.

"All I thought was it's not the time or place to be disrespectful of the president of the United States," said Sponaugle, whose public relations company, Platinum PR, has worked closely with Hiller and Octavo Designs.

The morning after the rally, Hiller said, he came to work, and Hough told him his behavior was unacceptable and asked him to leave, he said.

Hiller said he doesn't regret what he did Tuesday and said he would do it again. "I didn't do anything wrong," he said. "I wasn't a mindless heckler."

Hiller said he has interviews lined up in his search for a new job.