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Matt Drudge, Partisan Hack - Blog Day Afternoon
Posted by Jeff (Wednesday August 10 2005 @ 10:16PM EDT)
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 Last year Cindy Sheehan lost her son in Iraq. Well she didn't exactly lose him. Casey Sheehan returned from Baghdad in one of those flag draped caskets the Bush Administration doesn't want you to see. Shortly after their son's death, the Sheehans had a chance to visit President Bush. The family didn't voice its policy objections during that meeting out of respect for the presidency and in deference to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act.
A year later, Ms. Sheehan appears to regret her discretion. Now she'd like some answers. Not the kind of answers Chimpy reserves for the screened audiences that fill his revival tents. "Any questions?" Gary Walby raises his hand. "Yes, you in the back." Walby steps up to the microphone. "Mr. President. I always vote Republican but this is the first time I ever felt that God was in the White House." [thunderous applause]
Okay, that wasn't really a question but Ms. Sheehan has one. She went to Crawford, Texas for a chance to sieze a few minutes that Chimpy reserves for clearing brush. Since she didn't ask in 2004, she'd like to ask him now. "Mr. Coo-Coo Bananas, why did my son die in Iraq?" Like many people, she'd like to know which of the twenty-seven different rationales the Administration used to justify its excellent adventure. Bush isn't falling for that one so Sheehan is camped outside his ranch.
The Bush Adminstration's preferred tactic is strategic bombing but Cindy Sheehan is just a little too close to the ranch for an air strike. Instead they turned to Drudge. The partisan hack dug up a quote by Ms. Sheehan in which she claims some happiness in the wake of her 2004 meeting with President Bush [spit]. From Drudge:
"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."
The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.
The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.
For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.
For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.
"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.
It seems this ungrateful wench changed her mind. Did she fall sway to the evil clutches of liberalism? The Bush Administration and rightard blogs were all over it. My sketchy meter hit eleven on a scale to ten. Since Drudge doesn't link to sources in order to mask his disingenuousness, I googled the original report. As it turns out, Drudge omitted this very relevent tidbit:
"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."
She may have experienced a brief wave of happiness, but she'd still like an answer to that question. So how about it, Mr. Bush?
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By The Pragmatist (Thursday August 11 2005 @ 09:43AM EDT)
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One could reconcile those two quotes from Sheehan -- she can both question and believe the President was sincere, etc. There is also a temporal factor involved --- "we haven't been happy" implying before the meeting and "gift of happiness" after the meeting. The following is harder to reconcile. Below is her contemporary account of presumably the same meeting:
The White House has released few details of such sessions, which Mr. Bush holds regularly as he travels the country, but generally portrays them as emotional and an opportunity for the president to share the grief of the families. In Ms. Sheehan's telling, though, Mr. Bush did not know her son's name when she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.
By Ms. Sheehan's account, Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin. Ms. Sheehan said she broke in and told Mr. Bush that Casey was her son, and that she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.
"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "
It's hard to see that type of meeting producing the "gift of happiness."
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By Cher (Thursday August 11 2005 @ 11:59AM EDT)
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From the way I read it, the "gift" was the assembly of family members that the event brought together.
While I actually don't see a change of opinion here, it sure is telling that the right seized on it in an effort to discredit Sheehan's criticism. We all know the worst thing to do if you're a republican is rethink ANY of your previous positions.
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By Jeff (Thursday August 11 2005 @ 01:09PM EDT)
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I imagine it was uplifting for the man upstairs to show some interest in her grief but after the euphoria broke, those nagging concerns probably returned.
From CNN:
"I felt compelled to come and tell her I support her," said Delaney, a self-described hippie from Sly Park, California. "The way they were bad-mouthing a mother whose son was killed in the war is un-American."
If the Bushies win this battle in the court of public opinion, the down is truly up.
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By The Pragmatist (Thursday August 11 2005 @ 01:31PM EDT)
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"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "
Doesn't sound like she was ready to be uplifted by Bush, although he may have hypnotic powers. As far as nagging concerns -- I think she had already (before her son went) a firm opinion about the war. Reportedly she asked him to go to Canada.
I'm inclined to agree with Cher that the Presidential meeting was less significant than spending a day with her now separated husband, remembering their little boy.
The bigger issue isn't whether someone now feels differently than they did. For me, it's the expectation that Bush will escape the noose on this one because a busload of Green Party activists and the Hip Hop Caucus will show up to protest the War, and Globalization and Gay and Lesbian issues and SUVs...
Did I leave out Racism and Choice?
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By Cher (Thursday August 11 2005 @ 01:40PM EDT)
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Agreed. Her solitary message is strong. If it gets lost in a sea of identity politics, then the opportunity is lost.
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By moveon (Friday August 12 2005 @ 12:32PM EDT)
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Thank God, Sorry mentioned God on a public site(not really sorry), that Michael Mooron is now involved with Cindy. This adds SO much more credibility to her cause. For you MMooron lovers that is SARCASM.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
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By Jeff (Friday August 12 2005 @ 12:56PM EDT)
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Funny thing about sarcasm; it only works in the absense of explanation. For you Red Staters that WASN'T sarcasm. Here's the thing I like best about Republicans: making fun of their accents, "Ya'll wanna bald pay-nut?" Peanuts have hair? Who knew?
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By MattC (Friday August 12 2005 @ 01:24PM EDT)
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Why do you hate US soldiers so much that wish them dead, and their families to mourn?
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Enlighten me, Marge
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The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind is reason.
-- Thomas Paine
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We Did Our Job!
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