Huffin’ and puffin’

Cindy Sheehan wrote a message posted at the Huffington Post, directed towards Drudge, apparently in an attempt to "remind" him that this wasn’t "about her" but about the war. Many (of course) came to her defense and to show support against those evil rabid right wingers who have the nerve to question the motivations of those "supporting" her. Hence the name of my post about the matter. You can check out the "make love, not war" offerings here (make sure to scroll down). I was glad to see (and I admit I didn’t scroll down and read every message) that the posts there by people questioning what she wrote were civil and direct (now, it could very well be that any offending messages were deleted – I don’t know). Asking why she considered Bush the world’s "biggest terrorist" and whether or not she really said her son died "for Israel", that sort of thing. But reading the defenses/supportive messages to her gave me an almost surreal feeling. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Hollywood, of course, is lining up behind Ms. Sheehan’s "campaign" as well (that’s Richard Dreyfuss in the photo). I’m sure that comes as a surprise to absolutely no one. One wonders when Michael Moore will make his first ‘official’ public appearance in support of Ms. Sheehan (I just *can’t wait* for that one). On a related note, Patrick Sheehan has finally spoken out about his wife’s campaign. See Patterico’s post on this for more. Guest columnist Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D. has an article posted at Townhall.com that raises questions about the media’s culpability in pushing this story in light of the fact that the woman in the center of this story seems to have become, as Crouse describes her, "unhinged":

The media frenzy surrounding Cindy Sheehan, the woman who lost a son in Iraq, is a prime example of what has gone wrong with 24-hour “news” coverage. The woman is clearly unhinged, and while we need to respect her grief at losing her son, it is now abundantly evident that her campaign has moved beyond her personal loss to her political ideology. It is embarrassing and inhumane for the media to expose this poor women’s unbalanced behavior. Somebody needs to step in to provide her with a quiet place to rest and, one would hope, regain her rationality and emotional balance. It is terribly sad to see the press –– bored from a slow-news August and the forced inactivity in Crawford, Texas –– exploit someone who has become a crackpot. Cindy Sheehan’s campaign long ago lost any pretense of being a mother’s grief-stricken reaction to her son’s tragic death. When Sheehan’s 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Baghdad last year, she founded an antiwar organization called Gold Star Families. Now, she has combined Madison Avenue and K Street by hiring a political consultant, public relations advisors, and establishing a website in an organized effort to keep the cameras on her and her cause. All that high-powered activity is being funded by three major-league, Far Left sponsors –– Moveon.org (notorious for Michael Moore’s efforts to keep the President from being re-elected), TrueMajority (established by the liberal Ben and Jerry’s ice cream dynasty) and Democracy for America –– and seems to be linked to an orchestrated effort to harass and embarrass President Bush.

Read the whole thing. Talk show host Frank Beckmann had this to say about the anti-war grief exploiters, er "supporters":

They ought to be ashamed of themselves, but they’re not. They are the hate-filled, "Get Bush" crowd members who have now turned Cindy Sheehan’s publicity stunt into a circus sideshow. Sheehan’s son, Casey, was a U.S. soldier who was killed last year in Iraq. She has staged a sit-in near the Crawford, Texas, ranch of President George W. Bush and claimed that the president killed her son. Cindy Sheehan became an overnight darling of cable television, national newspapers and, of course, the left-wing anti-war groups. They should have stopped there. Instead, they sensed an opportunity to parlay this woman’s grief into their own selfish partisan purposes, but they ruined Sheehan’s credibility.

Agreed, for the most part. But Ms. Sheehan has done a fair bit herself as far as ruining her credibility goes …. and it’s sad. Overwhelming grief sometimes does that to people. I feel sorrow and sympathy for her, but remain disgusted with many of her exploitative hangers-on. Late morning update: Powerline provides some photos from Crawford that *don’t* include anti-war protestors in them. Saturday update: Michelle Malkin has more on the Summer of Cindy.

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