Mount Vernon to award Glenn Beck key to cityBy BRYAN JOHNSON
KOMO-TV STAFF
The mayor of Mount Vernon has made it official. Mayor Bud Norris says he will give the key to his city to conservative talk show host Glenn Beck on Sept. 26.
Norris says Beck will deliver a short talk that night and become the first person to receive a key to the city in the six years Norris has been mayor.
Protesters from the Skagit County Young Democrats walked outside city hall Tuesday with protest signs, one reading "Change the locks!"
They called it "totally inappropriate" to give a man who labeled President Barack Obama a "racist" a key to the city.
Norris told KOMO News the key does not represent city approval of every comment that Beck may make, but recognizes a local boy who made it big.
Norris says he knew Beck when the talk show host was just 12 years old. He said he remembers the tyke carrying a sandwich board saying "Vote for Norris for county commissioner" up and down Mount Vernon's First Street.
He said he and Beck's parents were friends, but said this is not a political payback for campaigning decades ago. He said this is merely a recognition of someone who is from Mount Vernon.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/409779_beck02.html
