‘Pants on Fire’ mobile makes a statement for some Bush foes

Julie Banks isn’t planning on doing any parallel parking on June 25 or 30.

Those are her days to drive around Spokane – and possibly into Coeur d’Alene – in the “Pants On Fire” mobile, a Crown Victoria LX that tows a trailer with a 12-foot statue of President Bush, an electronic reader board, a generator and a fan.

The route is up to her. If she feels like it, she can push a button on the dashboard and “smoke” will waft out of the statue’s pants. She can turn on the speakers and play music.

She doesn’t have to worry about catching anything on fire, because the “flames” are really gauzy fabric that flutter over colored lights. The smoke won’t pollute the air; it’s really the product of a fog machine.

But backing up isn’t going to be much of an option.

Banks, a coordinator for the Race for Women, is among a handful of people from the Spokane area who signed up to drive the car and trailer around the community over the next two weeks. She hopes the protest against the president and his policies is received in the spirit it’s intended.

“I feel as though it’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted, positive thing I can do,” Banks said as she looked over the car and trailer. For those who have a bad reaction, she plans to say, “Have a nice day.”

The statue is the creation of Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, and has been traveling the country since October as a prop for a group called True Majority Action.

On Tuesday, it rolled into town, and Cohen caught up with it, as he does about every month, to take care of maintenance like taping up the flight suit where it’s getting worn through and fixing the fog machine. He also took the opportunity to pass out ice cream bars, anti-Bush bumper stickers, T-shirts and dolls to a crowd of about 70 who came for a look at the statue as it was parked in the North Bank parking lot of Riverfront Park.

True Majority Action disagrees with the Bush administration on issues ranging from world poverty and hunger to the war in Iraq to human rights and energy. The statue was that group’s first activity, and was so successful that another statue was built and is being pulled around other parts of the country on a separate tour.

“Most people who don’t agree with us see the humor in it,” Cohen said. “There’s a few people that are really (ticked) off.”