corrente

The first impulse of a Republican faced with opposition—and by "opposition" we mean anything other than bending... bending the knee in fealty—is to slime and defend, and so with Cindy Sheehan. We saw the usual frothing and stamping and sWifting from the freepers and Rush "But How Could I Serve? I Had A Boil On My Ass!" Limbaugh. But that didn't work out so well. Maybe people are getting tired of the act; and then again, a mother who lost her son to Bush's war isn't all that easy to attack, even in these times. Not even for nudnik.

Clearly more sophisticated Noisemakers were needed. Enter Raygun's biographer, Edmund Morris, with a more effective rhetorical strategy. We'll pass over Morris's shameless attempt to pass off some incoherent jottings from "Dutch" as empathetic, and get to the meat of the argument.

You see, it's not about policy, and it's certainly not about the facts. It's about emotion:

Cindy Sheehan's attempt to have President Bush tell her - again - how sorry he is about the death of her son in Iraq is escalating into a protest more political than personal. As such, it is a legitimate expression of antiwar sentiment. [Fine word, "legitimate"!] But the individual [never collective!] cry for attention at the heart of it - "Mr. President, feel my pain!" [mad props to Morris for the subliminal reference to The Clenis!] - is misguided. Ms. Sheehan cannot expect a commander in chief to emote on demand. [Lo! The straw man springeth!]

Maybe one day some such document will reveal what President Bush really feels about his own "honored dead." For the meantime, he is our elected [cough] president, with the business of a nation to run. Ms. Sheehan has gotten more time with him than most grieving mothers, and if she felt, during those unsatisfactory minutes, that there was a glass wall around him, it unfortunately comes with the job. A president has to protect himself from emotional predators, or he'd be sucked dry within a week of taking office.
(via Times)

Amazing. Pray, Mr. Morris, who is the predator here? Cindy Sheehan, or the President who lied his way into a war, using appeals to fear, playing on people's faith, and branding opponents as traitors, and now wants to "get on with his life"? Who is the emotional predator?

Morris, accomplished Republican shill that he is, is, of course, lying. The very first sentence is a lie. Cindy Sheehan does not want Bush to tell her "how sorry he is." And the last sentences are lies. Sheehan is not asking about Bush's "real feelings." Sheehan is not asking for "time" with Bush.

What Cindy Sheehan wants is accountability. That's how democracy works, right? She wants answers to questions:

"I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?" Sheehan told reporters. "He said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is."
(CNN)

What is the "noble cause" for which Casey Sheehan died?

What is the "noble cause" for which Casey Sheehan died?

What is the "noble cause" for which Casey Sheehan died?

Morris doesn't answer Cindy Sheehan's question. So he lies about what Cindy Sheehan wants.

I wonder why?

Bush hasn't answered Cindy Sheehan's question.

I wonder why?