Bush Impersonator Doesn’t Mask Beliefs

A startling sight greeted visitors to the state Employment Development Department office in Simi Valley on Thursday: a George Bush impersonator holding a sign that read “Will Work for Food.”

The man in the Halloween-type Bush mask was 59-year-old Harold Syrdahl of Thousand Oaks, one of a handful of political activists calling themselves “Republicans for Clinton.”

Their publicity stunt was concocted by Robert Miltenberg of Agoura Hills, an unemployed advertising executive who donned a large cardboard box labeled “Bush Wear.”

Miltenberg, who described himself as a registered Republican who worked on Bush’s 1988 campaign, now plans to vote against the President.

“President Bush doesn’t seem to want to ‘fess up to the fact that the economy is hurting,” he said.

Miltenberg said he chose Simi Valley as the site of the protest because it is a Republican stronghold near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Syrdahl, an unemployed electronics technician, said he was not affiliated with any party in 1988 but did vote for Bush. He said he no longer supports the President “because I’m tired of seeing American jobs shipped overseas.”

Harold Wiest, a 46-year-old Simi Valley resident who recently lost his job, nodded in agreement as he entered the employment office Thursday.

“Bush says it’s not as bad as it looks,” Wiest said. “But I see all of these people out of work and out on the corners saying they’re willing to work for food.”

Bob Larkin, a Simi Valley businessman who serves on Ventura County’s GOP Central Committee, was not amused when he learned about the Bush look-alike.

He blamed the California Legislature, controlled by Democrats, for the state’s economic woes.

“I think it’s a silly campaign stunt,” Larkin said.

“Certainly, any halfway intelligent Republican would understand that (Assembly members) Willie Brown and Jack O’Connell and the Democrats are the ones who are destroying the jobs in California.”