Some used the old white supremacist scare tactic of waving Confederate battle flags in front of the home of a black family – in this case, the White House.
It's only the first couple of weeks of 2015, but the year may as well be over: with the 2016 presidential and congressional elections looming, Republicans are pushing full steam ahead on economy and jobs in an attempt to improve their chances at capturing the White House next year.
The path to the university, whose president is Donna Shalala, the long-serving health secretary during both terms of Bill Clinton's administration, is well trodden by White House hopefuls: Mitt Romney was here three weeks ago for a Spanish-language interview in an attempt to woo the Hispanic vote.
Cutter accused the Republican White House ticket of politicizing the issue.
The White House is attempting to cultivate new ties with Egypt's new Islamist rulers following the removal of the Hosni Mubarak, the hardline president who was formerly backed by Washington, last year.
While some presidents, including those who occupied the White House for a full eight years, have struggled to be remembered at all 50 years after their deaths, Kennedy continues to loom large.
Clancy also said the secret service was currently making plans for a new fence to be built around the actual White House, but it would take a year and a half.
Many commentators noted that the letter, like the Republican invitation to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to address Congress last week without consulting the White House, marked a dramatic break from the tradition that partisan politics should "stop at the water's edge" and not spread into critical US defence and security policy abroad.
Durkan could, as Tom Kelly argued earlier this year, find solace in a bigger, more professional club called Fianna Fail, where he can make a comeback in the green, white and gold colours of the Irish Republic's official 'Republican Party'.
Related: Republican elite swarm New Hampshire as host of 2016 hopefuls take the stage The full-to-bursting roster of Republican presidential aspirants expanded again over the weekend after John Kasich, the governor of the crucial swing-state of Ohio, laid the groundwork for a run on the White House with an unusual attack on Wall Street.
The governor, a former congressman, stopped short of announcing his formal his entry into the presidential race on the show – as he did in 1999, before an extremely short-lived first run for the White House.
