PERHAPS NOTHING SIGNIFIES THE DEATH GRIP IN WHICH THE FAR-LEFT NOW HOLDS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY THAN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT: HILLARY CLINTON has agreed to meet with antiwar extremist Cindy Sheehan. The leftist rag the Village Voice has reported that this weekend, between rallies at the White House sponsored by United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER, Sheehan will make a side trip to share her concerns and keen foreign policy insights with the likely 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.
Hillary’s decision comes after Sheehan told the press she was “so frustrated” with the Democratic all-star for not endorsing immediate, unilateral withdrawal from Iraq. At a rally on Sunday, Sheehan reassured her supporters Hillary is “waiting for the best political moment to say” she favors the pullout, warning Hillary in no uncertain terms: “You say it, or you’re losing your job.”
Sheehan’s fiery rhetoric represents a new tactic: targeting prominent Democrats for defeat if they do not parrot her solution to Iraq. “It’s time for them to step up and be the opposition party,” Sheehan said. Learning the lessons of Vietnam, Sheehan forecasts, “This war is not going to end unless the Democrats are on board with us.”
Sheehan has already alerted the public that Sen. Dianne Feinstein “will also go on our Hall of Shame” for opposing her cut-and-run plan – which experts agree will lead to massive bloodshed and the collapse of the new democratic government. (Sheehan claimed the aide Feinstein dispatched to meet with her acted “defensive and borderline rude” – and probably sexist, too.)
In her open letter to Congress, she threatens politicians of both parties, “Meet with us, answer us, and show us that there need not be a Camp Casey in your district.”
No fewer than 17 Congressmen have heeded the call and scheduled face time with “Mother Sheehan,” including such Democratic Party statesmen as:
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA;
- Sen. Robert Byrd, D-Kleagle;
- Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, another likely 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful;
- Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA;
- Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-GA;
- Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA;
- Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-TX;
- Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-CA;
- Rep. Fortney “I said you are a little fruitcake” Stark, D-CA;
- Rep. Shelley Berkeley, D-NV;
- Rep. John Barrow, D-GA;
- Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-TX;
- Rep. Frank Pallone, D-NJ; and
- Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-HI
Inexplicably, Sen. Arlen Specter has scheduled a meeting with the professional griever. Two other Republicans also have Cindy Sheehan penciled in this weekend: Rep. Ron Paul, R-TX, a libertarian and outspoken critic of this war; and Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-NH, who supported the war.
Avowed Socialist Bernard Sanders has not yet agreed to meet with her.
This list does not include the five supportive Congressional Democrats who have already met with Sheehan, including Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, and Henry Waxman. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert refused to indulge her. An aide from Tom DeLay’s office spoke to her by phone. (See her “Hall of Fame/Hall of Shame” here.)
This list also excludes those Democratic and “Progressive” figures who bolstered Sheehan when she first came to national prominence, still yet knee-deep in a Crawford ditch. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, D-IL, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, phoned in her support for Sheehan. Ralph Nader penned a letter of commendation. Former Howard Dean presidential campaign strategist Joe Trippi joined with California Democratic Party fundraiser Jodie Evans and the website Democrats.com to produce a webcast from Crawford. And 2004 Democratic Party presidential hopeful Al Sharpton kissed her cheek during his visit.
Now the most exciting figure in the Democratic Party will join their ranks. Hillary Clinton will embrace Cindy Sheehan – as she did Suha Arafat – knowing her full agenda and history of extremism.
This move comes after Cindy Sheehan called terrorists “freedom fighters”; after she told enlisted soldiers, “Refuse to kill innocent people” (by which she meant the aforementioned “freedom fighters”); after she told Chris Matthews it was wrong to topple the Taliban; after she called convicted terrorist lawyer Lynne Stewart – who illegally passed messages from a terrorist murderer to his overseas followers – “my human Atticus Finch”; after she said, “America has been killing people on this continent…since it was started…This country is not worth dying for”; after she called President Bush a “lying bastard” and “the biggest terrorist in the world”; after she hypothesized “9/11 was their Pearl Harbor to get their neo-con agenda through”; after she wrote that her son “was killed for lies and for a…Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel” (and then seemingly lied about writing it); and after she endorsed a measure to kick military recruiters out of Bay-area high schools, a move that would cost the school system its federal funding.
Sheehan’s behavior has hardly abated since events of actual importance displaced her from the national spotlight. She has called New Orleans “a city that is occupied” and portrayed National Guardsmen bringing relief to Hurricane Katrina victims as murderous thugs:
I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me…George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self [sic.] from power.
It seems to Sheehan, U.S. troops are U.S. troops, and they are all the enemy.
Cindy Melts Down, Savages Grieving Pregnant Widowed Vet
This lachrymose radical – who, in her own mind, has achieved “almost icon status” [sic.] – sheds no tears for those who do not share her far-Left political views, describing these grieving mothers as “brainwashed”:
I don't understand how any mother could want another mother to feel the pain we feel. I am starting to lose a little compassion for them. I know they have been as brainwashed as the rest of America, but they know the pain and heartache and they should not wish it on another.
She proved her lack of compassion Monday night during an exchange on CNBC’s little-watched “The Big Idea, with Donny Deutsch.” After a courageous pregnant veteran said she was 12 days from delivering the child she conceived with her late husband, a Navy corpsmen killed in Iraq by al-Qaeda operatives, Sheehan lovingly interjected, “Well, Sweetie, they weren't there before [U.S. troops] invaded and opened the doors borders to the terrorists.” Sheehan then taunted the widowed patriot, “You know what? Your baby is going to be fatherless for a lie, for two lies: Weapons of Mass Destruction and terrorism.” The grieving woman responded, “My child will never be fatherless because his father is an angel.”
Apparently, she hadn’t heard “tens of thousands of angels are behind” Sheehan.
Cindy Sheehan: I Am Above De Law!
None of those legions of angels inspired Sheehan’s backers in New York. Earlier that day, Sheehan’s supporters called New York’s finest “pigs,” “fascists,” and “Stalinsts” (further proof that leftists have no sense of irony). The NYPD shut down a Sheehan rally in NYC’s Union Square – which drew all of 150 people – after organizers used an amplifier for which they did not have a permit. The Village Voice records, when police finally acted, “an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police.” That is, one-third of her adoring fans – fighting for “peace” – were willing to provoke a confrontation with uniformed law enforcement officials.
The crowd may have been emboldened by the words of one of the speakers leading up to Sheehan. Dustin Langley of the Troops Out Now Coalition [1] encouraged the crowd to “open a new front of resistance right here. Bring Fallujah to New York and shut it down!”
As I’ve noted, leftists regularly excuse, endorse, or exhort the use of violence to achieve their political ends. An article that received wide circulation on the Left before the 2004 GOP convention instructed protestors to “Bring Najaf to New York.” Other protestors tried to block the Oakland seaport to prevent ships from taking supplies to U.S. troops in Iraq, staked out U.S. military bases, stormed military recruiting centers, and blocked traffic in several major metropolitan areas. Sheehan’s friend and sponsor, Medea Benjamin, directed the violent 1999 WTO riots in Seattle; last year, her organization, Code Pink, donated $600,000 in cash and supplies to “the other side” in Fallujah. By contrast, conservative protests, to the extent such events occur, tend to consist of people gathering to pray the rosary.
Despite the long history of violence surrounding left-wing protests, the antiwar Left was outraged yesterday morning when the Capitol police told Sheehan’s entourage, “RVs aren’t allowed on Capitol Hill.” The officer informed the leftists, “That’s standard procedure. Any trucks that come on Capitol Hill are stopped and turned around.” Campers, such as those who wanted to spend the night in front of the White House, are prohibited “unless they’ve been previously authorized.” The Village Voice seemed at a loss to comprehend how bomb-sniffing dogs were necessary in a mass rally its planners allege will draw 100,000 angry left-wingers.
Bussing the “icon” of this movement is hardly the way for pseudo-centrist Hillary to enhance her Homeland Security credentials, let alone the undeserved reputation she has as a hawk guiding the Senate Armed Services Committee. It is, however, the apex of the activist base's control over the party, the fruition of MoveOn.org's boast: “In the last year, grassroots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the Party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive. Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back.” It began with the ascendancy of Howard Dean and his capturing the apparatus of the DNC. Now the base is issuing a no-win ultimatum to the party's presumptive presidential candidate before her coronation: become unelectably left-wing or face mutiny from the far-Left.
The antiwar Democrats (as opposed to pro-war Democrats) have this coming to them. They made Cindy Sheehan the face of the antiwar movement because, like Sheehan, they wanted to exploit her son’s death in order to score maximum political damage against President Bush. Although they did not share her plans for immediate troop withdrawal, they demanded the president meet with her and listen to her foreign policy views. Now she is using her “absolute moral authority” to blackmail the Democrats into supporting her platform – or else. They may yet regret their untimely embrace of this anti-American radical.
ENDNOTES:
1. TONC, which will be at the D.C. rally this weekend, shares the full agenda of the Hate America Left. One of its webpages lists “4 facts you should know.” Fact number five (ahem) is, “NO LINK BETWEEN SADAM HOUSAN/IRAQ [sic.] AND AL-QUIDA [sic.] PROVEN.” (Screaming illiteracies in original.) One of its flyers for Sunday’s rally demands America “Stop the Threats Against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Africa & North Korea!” and insists America get out of Afghanistan. Similarly, they want “Military Recruiters out of our Schools” and “Support the Palestinian people’s Right to Return.” After Sunday, TONC will be gearing up for Louis Farrakhan’s “Millions More March” in October.
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Thanks for that. I got tired of posting the correction for that after the first several dozen times I saw it here.
Rush reports that for some unexplained reason, McCain will also meet with Sheahan.
