Published: September 17, 2008

A quick-fingered concierge clicked the glass doors locked before protesters could file into the lobby of John McCain's Arlington condo complex today.
The 50 labor organizers and workers who had gathered to call attention to McCain's economic policies and multiple residences then proceeded to march in a tight circle around the maple tree out front.

"They are blocking our driveway!" snapped the desk attendant, impatient for the police watching outside to jump into action as the crowd chanted, "One, four, seven, ten, how many houses do you have again?"

The carefully choreographed demonstration -- one protester held a sign reading, "Can I crash on one of your couches?" -- was meant to tap economic anxiety in a week of frightening financial news.

It soon moved without incident to a patch of grass across the street, where a "tent city" in the form of a couple of backpacker shelters and three camouflaged hunting tents stood as the latest props in a campaign that the Barack Obama supporters hope turns their way on economic issues.

"For every Wall Street crisis, there's a main street crisis," said Jeffrey Lerner, a political organizer working with the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, the Carpenters' union and others.

Sixteen counter-protesters responded with equal message discipline, one waving a placard reading: "Hollywood $ / OBAMA = OUT OF TOUCH."

Unlike some other McCain family properties, such as a multimillion dollar condominium in Phoenix, the three-bedroom Arlington condo is not too far out of line with many of the McCains' neighbors. The median price for a single family home in Arlington last year was $667,000, and the McCain condo was assessed this year at $848,000. The Virginia property is held under the name of McCain's wife, Cindy.
Jean Irwin, who was laid off in 2006 as an administrative assistant at the Michigan Department of Transportation, was flown in from Detroit for the protest.

"In my street alone, in four blocks, there are 32 houses, as of yesterday morning, empty," Irwin said. Foragers are peeling off aluminum siding and stealing windows from the vacant homes, she said, and she backed way off on the heat last winter because she didn't have the money. "I'd wait until it got so cold I couldn't stand it, and I'd turn it back on," she said.

Irwin, 57, said she bought her 800 square-foot home in 1995 for about $60,000, but still owes $58,000 on it today, after a refinancing a few years back. She said she's making some payments using unemployment benefits before they run out, and is searching for work.

She joined up with a Michigan group trying to pass a two-year moratorium on foreclosures, which led to the phone call which brought her to the Washington area today for the first time since she was a kid.

The years between visits have not been easy. She was orphaned at 10 years old after her mother died of cancer, then was raised by her grandparents and fought off cancer herself in 1998. "It's okay. It makes me a tough old bat," Irwin said.

She wants Obama in the White House, but will pushing hard on whoever wins.
"I intend to hold their feet to the fire. If they get in there, they better listen to us," Irwin said. "I certainly hope other people realize we can't keep putting people into office that don't pay attention to us."