Jon Christian Ryter -- Sheehan's Now a Player

SHEEHAN'S NOW A PLAYER

By Jon Christian Ryter

February 15, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Did antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan aka "peace mom" commit a faux pas when she allowed her greatly-inflated opinion of herself to cloud her better judgment when she decided to challenge liberal California US Senator Dianne Feinstein in January, 2006? Did Sheehan get caught up in her own fictional aura, and start believing the dribble that the liberal media wrote about her solely to embarrass President George W. Bush�and erode Bush's support for the war on terrorism? Or is there real money�George Soros money�behind Sheehan and the communist antiwar movement in the United States that was rekindled when the peace mom pitched a tent in Crawford, Texas and demanded that the President of the United States come out and speak with her?

By the time Sheehan�whose 15 minutes of fame is in overtime�stepped up to the podium at the Brooklyn Peace Fair on Oct. 22, 2005 the antiwar crowd was already hinting that Sheehan would make a good president, vice president, Secretary of Defense, Senator or Congressman. If Cindy's name was on the ballot, the antiwar far left and even scores of anti-Bush, antiwar far right voters would pull the lever or punch the ballot for her.

Full of herself, she boldly stepped before the microphone and bruised the toes of Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer�who she referred to "pro-war Democrats." Sheehan didn't realize she had crossed the invisible line of the left-smearing-the-left until after she spoke. "Maybe later," she said, "we'll talk about your senators." The 200-plus antiwar crowd booed and jeered her. Sheehan's Code Pink handlers and Carolyn Eisenberg of Brooklyn Parents for Peace which sponsored the peace rally, quickly stepped in and did damage control. There were as many "Hillary in 2008" signs in the crowd as there were signs saying "Cindy, I love you." In some cases, both placards were stapled to the reverse sides of the same standard.

Writing a scathing online article for several socialist antiwar websites on Oct. 16, Sheehan promised to resist the presidential candidacy of New York's junior Senator. Sheehan described Clinton as a "...political animal who believes she has to be war hawk to keep up with the big boys...Unless the Senator [helps push for pulling] US troops out of Iraq, I will resist her candidacy with every bit of my power and strength." Sheehan is so full of herself that none of her supporters�or detractors�were surprised by her words although her supporters in the antiwar movement, at that moment, actually believed Sheehan planned to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008. The antiwar left want Sheehan to move to New York and run against Hillary this fall for her Senate seat in order to force Hillary to become more proactive against the War in Iraq.

New York, however, was the first State to suffer in the War on Terrorism and, like Los Angeles, because of their immense core urban populations, is the prime target for a terrorist dirty bomb or suitcase bomb strike should al Qaeda manage to get a chemical, biological or nuclear suitcase bomb into the country. Because they are the most logical targets for terrorists attacks, its unclear if Senators or Congressmen who appear soft on terrorism can get elected. New Yorkers are smart enough to realize that even though they don't like George W. Bush, its smarter to fight terrorists on Iraqi soil than American soil. It's unclear if Californian liberals think the same way since half of the Tinseltown crowd has gone to Iraq, Syria or Iran to show their support for the Muslims who are now making it crystal clear to the world that Islam is a religion of hate.

The antiwar movement�which pulls Sheehan's chain�is trying hard to force Hillary Clinton and other liberal Congressmen and Senators who must appear pro-military to get reelected, to push for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. The activists at the Brooklyn Parents for Peace were trying to pressure Clinton and Schumer to support a Senate resolution sponsored by 2008 presidential wannabe Sen. Russell Feingold that would force Bush to submit a formal timeline for withdrawing all troops from Iraq. The antiwar crowd is determined to force Clinton to shed her lamb's clothing and force her to address the war on their terms if she wants their votes in November, 2008. The antiwar crowd is mad that Clinton has been playing both sides of the war debate.

Clearly, the antiwar crowd doesn't mind Hillary playing two-faced games with any other issue, but they are adamant that she must become a loud voice for America's immediate withdrawal from Iraq�or they will throw their support behind some other candidate for the White House�a third party candidate candidate or one, like liberal Jewish Sen. Russell Feingold [D-WI], who is currently attempting to force Bush into publishing the timeline of his exit strategy from the Mideast.

Feingold, like the rest of the socialist liberals in Congress, doesn't seem to understand�or care�that if we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan before we have completely destroyed al Qaeda, the terrorists will follow our troops back to the United States. When that happens�and it will�the streets and shopping malls in your community will begin to look like the blown-out restaurants, shops and buses in Israel, and everytime you get on a bus, a subway or a train, you will find yourself wondering if the dark-skinned, foreign-looking kid with a backpack who followed you onboard is a suicide bomber. And, one day, he or she will be.

Antiwar activists are beginning to see potential in Sheehan as the candidate of hope. Over the past two years Sheehan has become an icon for the left as she breathed new life in a twisted movement that has been in virtual hibernation since the end of the Vietnam War�a peace mom whose popularity stems entirely from the "grief" of losing her son in the war. At the Brooklyn Peace Fair, hordes of leftist fans flocked to get near her, mobbing her as she went to the platform, getting their pictures taken with or near her, or simply trying to shake her hand. One man, with a bandana around his forehead, took off a Veterans for Peace antiwar T-shirt and gave it to her because, he shouted, he wanted to give her "...the shirt off my back." Sheehan has become iconic enough to attract large crowds, but not iconic enough to win an election since ideology never transcends its niche. That's why the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Socialist Party have never won a national election in the United States�and why they never will.

But then, the activists don't expect Sheehan to win if she jumps into the presidential race as the candidate of the Green Party in 2008. Nor would they expect her to win as a Green Party Senate candidate against Senators Dianne Feinstein or Hillary Clinton in 2006. It's all about making political statements and stealing enough votes against those they must influence to deliberately throw the election to the opposition. That forces left of center politicians to accommodate the communists behind the radical left rather than risk having the antiwar crowd field their own third party candidates that will drain just enough votes from them to defeat their reelection bids. Why would they do that? Because it will force the liberals to make major political concessions to the antiwar crowd in order to keep their jobs.

The well-heeled antiwar crowd knows if they can successfully derail Hillary Clinton in 2006 or 2008, they can derail any left-of-center politician in either the House or Senate�or perhaps even the White House. Or, at least it would likely convince most liberal Congressmen or Senators that they may possess that power. Since the the Democratic Party mastered the art of using third party candidates to derail Republicans, they know the antiwar crowd is holding a winning hand in a political game of Texas Hold'em�or New York or California Hold'em. So, when the Green Party announced it was fielding Sheehan for the New York senate seat, Hillary met with her in a well-publicized meeting in Washington on Nov. 22. In that meeting Sheehan demanded that Hillary sign on to Feingold's Iraqi withdrawal proposal. While Hillary knew it would be political suicide to sign Feingold's resolution, she pretty much endorsed the concept, and has become more outspoken against the Bush position in Iraq. Getting what the antiwar crowd wanted from the former First Lady, when the Village Voice asked Sheehan if she was going to run against Hillary, she told them, "I love your State, but I don't think I want to move here."

Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, California, met with Venezuelan dictator and president-for-life Hugo Chavez on January 29 in Caracas. During her photo op with the communist strongman, Sheehan announced that she was seriously contemplating running against Feinstein because the senator refused to sign Feingold's resolution. But, more important she said, she was running because Feinstein�who is up for reelection in November� couldn't seem to recognize how dangerous Judge Samuel Alito was, and that she said she would not join the liberals in filibustering his confirmation to the Supreme Court. "I'm appalled that Dianne Feinstein wouldn't recognize how dangerous Alito's nomination is to upholding the values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential powers, for which I've already paid the ultimate price."

Sheehan went on to say that Alito had "...an extensive paper trail documenting the rightwing political agenda that he has actively advanced, not only as a high-ranking official in the Reagan Administration, but also as a judge..." She accused the jurist of attempting to restrict the power of Congress, saying that he was in favor of curtailing "...privacy rights, including not only privacy from government surveillance and arbitrary arrest, but also other constitutional rights based on privacy such as reproductive liberty for women." Sheehan's position shift signals an ideological shift in the issues she will champion, expanding her role from that of a mourning peace mom whose activism�and "pure motive" was based solely on the loss of her son in April, 2004 to that of a judicial activist who joined the international utopians.

Sheehan's handlers have either morphed into a transnational version of home grown activism or they have been replaced with a first tier professional coaching staff. Since her Venezuelan visit, Sheehan now appear to represent the interests of the communist one-worlders who erroneously believe that war will cease when everyone shares equally in the fruits of the Earth. Sheehan has graduated from amateur to professional. She has just enough backing that the DNC has suddenly become nervous. She's become a player. But, she's not being controlled by the Democrats�she's playing them.

The Democratic National Committee went ballistic. Feinstein popped her cork. Feinstein then agreed to sign on to the Alito filibuster. On Feb. 9 the peace mom announced she was no longer planning to challenge Feinstein for her Senate seat in November. Instead of running for office, she declared, she would focus on pushing senators like Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer�and Hillary Clinton�to introduce legislation that calls for the return of American troops from Iraq. "I am not running against Senator Feinstein," she said, "but I will continue to be a thorn in her side."

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Make no bones about it, Sheehan is now a player�but not of the American left. Sheehan has become a player of the Soros-funded international communist left. I wonder which Democratic presidential "hopeful" will reach out and embrace Sheehan in 2008? I hope her 15-minutes of fame is still in overtime, because the losses to the Democratic Party will be monumental with Sheehan on board.