May 29, 2007

Cindy Sheehan Says Adios

Once the "darling" of the Left, a woman to whom crowds flocked, Cindy Sheehan has discovered that she has worn out her welcome by attacking everyone. In a missive she sent to the Democratic caucuses in Congress, Sheehan has renounced her membership in the party, claiming to have been as abused by the Left as she was by the Right:

Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq three years ago, said yesterday she was stepping down from her role as the figurehead of the US campaign against the war.

"This is my resignation letter as the 'face' of the American anti-war movement," she wrote in a sometimes bitter diary entry on the website Daily Kos. "I am going to take whatever I have left, and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children, and try to regain some of what I have lost." ...

"I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican party," she wrote. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic party to the same standards that I held the Republican party, support for my cause started to erode, and the 'left' started labelling me with the same slurs that the right used."

On Saturday, in an open letter to Democratic members of Congress, she announced that she was leaving the party because she felt its leaders had failed to change the country's course in Iraq.

I used to comment regularly about Sheehan and her antics, but had laid off recently. For one thing, she presented too easy a target. She clearly had lost her bearings, if not her mind, lionizing Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez while reviling George Bush as a dictator. She rarely said or did anything coherent. While she was the face of the anti-war movement, it showed them as hysterical and very uninformed.

Democrats may have used and exploited her, as she complains now, but she allowed them to do it. She practically threw herself in front of cameras, and the Bush-hatred she spewed matched their own rhetoric perfectly. She didn't attempt to separate herself from the politics of the situation, but instead embraced it enthusiastically.

However, when she started literally kissing up to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, the Democrats got very nervous about their connections to Sheehan. They started putting some distance between Sheehan's antics and the mainstream of the party, and when they did that, Sheehan lashed back at them. Apparently they answered her, and she didn't like criticism from her former supporters -- and now she's quitting as a result.

I hope she does return to her family and regain what she has lost. She lost her son, and she lost the rest of her family when she tried to turn herself into a weird kind of martyr. Now that she's climbing down off the cross, perhaps she can finally find some comfort in her surviving children and leave behind the lunacy she has exhibited in her fringe-Left campaign against not just George Bush but the country towards which she feels so much bitterness.

UPDATE: Rick Moran has more thoughts.

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» Cindy Sheehan Gives Up on the Democrats from Blogs of War
Apparently the two of us get hate mail from the same group of “peace-loving” lefties: I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war mo... [Read More]

» Goodbye, Cindy Sheehan from The American Mind
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» Cindy Sheehan ‘quits’ as the ‘official’ face for the anti-war left from Sister Toldjah
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» Cindy Sheehan pouts, goes home from Public Secrets: from the files of the Irishspy
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Comments (24)

Posted by negentropy | May 29, 2007 7:16 AM

when's her weight-loss system going into production?

Posted by Bruno | May 29, 2007 7:38 AM

Insofar as the democratic party not reflecting the wishes of the US public at large - ie getting out of Iraq - Sheehan is right.

Posted by TomB | May 29, 2007 7:50 AM

I felt and still feel deeply sorry for her and her loss (as I feel for the other Mothers). But I feel disgusted with the "peace" movements using her and her pain in a cynical way and by doing it showing THEIR true colors: the President hating trolls who can’t live in a democratic society if THEY loose and would ally with ANYBODY, including any of the America's enemies, for a political stunt, or to simply “stick it” to the President they disapprove. Shame!

Posted by Immolate | May 29, 2007 7:51 AM

This is a great blow in the war of ideology... to Republicans. Cindy Sheehan was the gift that kept on giving.

I wonder if she'll find the grace to heal the wound she's inflicted on her relationships with her family. I hope she does, but I have a feeling there are a few reefs left between her and the harbor.

Posted by dave | May 29, 2007 7:51 AM

It took long enough for her to realize that the Democrats and Republicans are indistinguishable.

Posted by largebill | May 29, 2007 8:13 AM

Even in a war like WW II where most of us were united, we had moms who blamed their own country rather than the enemy for their sons death. However, family and friends wouldn't let them be made a fool of in their grief. Nowadays we have a mom who clearly didn't agree with her adult sons decision who decided to express herself after his death. Instead of giving her a polite smile and a nudge to get off the stage, the left encouraged her to nurture her grief. She felt better when she lashed out and got "love" from the anti-American movements so naturally she continued. For her sake, I hope she leaves the public stage and politics for good.

Posted by Scott Malensek | May 29, 2007 8:22 AM

On Memorial Day 2007, Cindy Sheehan finally honored her son's service after years of protesting it.

Posted by John | May 29, 2007 8:24 AM

My guess is, if Hillary is not the Democratic nominee (and Ron Paul isn't the Republican one), Cindy makes a return appearance sometime during the 2008 general election season to voice her support for Edwards, Obama, Gore or whoever does run against the Republican candidate. And again, the media will hang on her "useful" remarks and treat her as an Absolute Moral Authority, while making sure the really far left remarks she makes fail to see the light of day on TV or in the big dailies and newsmagazines (of course, if the media can find a more telegenic and less PR-damaged mother of an Iraq war victim to latch onto, they'll only give Cindy a passing nod in favor of a fresh, younger face for the cameras).

Posted by NahnCee [TypeKey Profile Page] | May 29, 2007 8:26 AM

I hope she does return to her family and regain what she has lost.

Why on earth would normal people welcome her back to the fold after her antics? That would just be rewarding her, and saying essentially that, "It's alright for you to be a treasonous trouble-maker in a time of war because you are related to me."

I believe her husband has already divorced the silly cow. I hope everyone in the supermarket, in the PTA, and at the post office all turn their backs on her, thereby urging her to relocate OUT of the country she has repeatedly and vehemently called criminal.

She needs to be run out of town and out of America on a rail. If Venezuela is too far to relocate to, Canada has always been a nice haven for people who want to bad-mouth the United States of America.

Posted by horse | May 29, 2007 8:51 AM

There is pity here. She was just following the liberal path of the ends justify the means. She likely had it in her mind if she could help end the USA's involvement in Iraq, her son's death could have a meaning in her liberal world view. That meant she could do and say anything, no matter the truth, no matter the people she met with, and it would be justified if the USA got out of Iraq. Unfortunately for her, the dems have not ended the USA's involvement, so her means go unjustified and her son's death goes meaningless, in her view.

This is just another tale showing you will not get what you desire through immoral means without paying a heavy price, and you are still likely to fail in achieving what you wanted. Pity the sinner who now wallows alone in the gutter.

Posted by Ted Wallace | May 29, 2007 9:08 AM

How can Cindy ever go home again? Once you have hugged Castro, Chavez, and Jackson, how can you ever go home again?
Ted Wallace

Posted by Joselito | May 29, 2007 9:11 AM

Cindy Sheehan will continue just as Jane Fonda did. She will be lionized, quoted, and revered by the liberals the same way the Fonda is. Fonda and Sheehan. Admitted and proven traitors who bear responsibility for deaths as a result of their posturing, they will be liberal icons for al time. Count on it!

Posted by MikeD | May 29, 2007 9:17 AM

I feel no pity for, nor sadness at the elective departure of Ms Sheehan. She is a sorry and pathetically ignorant woman who lingered far too long on the public stage. Good riddance; with a little luck we will hear no more about her---ever.

Posted by pst314 | May 29, 2007 9:22 AM

"However, when she started literally kissing up to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, the Democrats got very nervous about their connections to Sheehan."

Not that they actually disapproved of sucking up to communist tyrants and thugs; they merely worried that it might look bad.

Posted by Clyde | May 29, 2007 9:27 AM

If America is not the country she loves, then perhaps she should find another country on which to lavish that love. Venezuela seems to be all "peace and love" these days. I'm sure that her ol' buddy Chavez would welcome her with open arms. Vaya con Dios, Cindy!

Then again, she'd probably look better under a burqa, so Iran's a possibility, too. I wouldn't recommend North Korea unless she has a taste for grass and tree bark soup.

Posted by Kathy | May 29, 2007 9:33 AM

Even in a war like WW II where most of us were united, we had moms who blamed their own country rather than the enemy for their sons death.

Why would Cindy Sheehan blame "the enemy" for her son's death? It wasn't the enemy who sent Casey Sheehan to Iraq.

Following your logic, you would have to believe that Iraqis killed in U.S. bombings or at checkpoints, etc., should blame fellow Iraqis, rather than "the enemy" from their perspective -- the United States.

If you don't believe that Iraqis whose loved ones have been killed by Americans should blame the United States, why would you believe that Cindy Sheehan should blame Iraqis for her son's death?

Posted by unclesmrgol | May 29, 2007 10:00 AM

Poor Cindy. Misunderstood by her family, her country, and even disobeyed by her patriotic son, Casey. The latter is what obviously hurt and angered Cindy the most -- that her son should die in battle for something Cindy didn't believe in. What could she do other than to strike at what her son cherished most?

Cindy has done well -- the ranch in Crawford ought to fetch a tidy sum.

With that sum, maybe she can buy some therapy which will bring closure and perhaps some realization that it wasn't America nor Casey that deserted Cindy, it was Cindy that deserted.

Posted by George | May 29, 2007 11:36 AM

This reminds me of when Forrest Gump goes jogging aimlessly around the country and then one day, out of the blue, decides to quit.

Posted by Only_One_Cannoli | May 29, 2007 1:09 PM

How soon before the majority of Sheehan's fellow Sorisians reach the same conclusion about the democratic party that she did?

the sooner the better

as for Forrest ...
Cindy Sheehan has something in common with "Jenny" ... leaving her fellow activists after being used by greasy, hairy pacifist dudes ... maybe she returns to the people who lover her, maybe she keeps looking for comfort in politics.

Posted by Maverick Muse | May 29, 2007 2:57 PM

KXAN, the Central TX NBC affiliate news, repeatedly announced this morning that Sheehan had camped outside of Bush's ranch "every summer since 2005" [all of two since the 2007 summer has yet to arrive] ] and that Bush had never given her a one-on-one moment though he had indeed before she went rabid.

Posted by Joshua | May 29, 2007 10:54 PM

Immolate: This is a great blow in the war of ideology... to Republicans. Cindy Sheehan was the gift that kept on giving.

Her real, unspoken reason for walking, perhaps?

unclesmrgol: [I]t wasn't America nor Casey that deserted Cindy, it was Cindy that deserted.

It strikes me as closer to the truth that Cindy has finally faced up to the fact that it's no longer 1968. In her own words: "Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it."

The country she professes to love ceased to exist right around Election Day 1980 (your reckoning may be different, not just on the date but as to whether that conception of America ever really existed at all, other than as a figment of the Left's imagination).

Still... good-bye America? What's up with that? Keep in mind that she's not really leaving the U.S., just returning to California. Does she expect her home state to soon become Aztlan territory or something?

Posted by dzier | May 29, 2007 11:55 PM

If she doesn't like this country, she can exercise her right to find a better one

Posted by unclesmrgol | May 30, 2007 6:08 PM

Joshua,

Why would Cindy be so angry? Isn't it because her son Casey disobeyed her, joined the military, went to Iraq, and then, right after acting as an alter server for Palm Sunday Mass, volunteered for the rescue mission on which he was killed?

Cindy didn't start out blaming America for her son's death -- she blamed his Commander in Chief, who is responsible for defending America. I think she unconsciously blames Casey, but I don't think she's yet come to that realization.

Pointedly, she was used and abused, and finally realized so. She wasn't used by America, but by our adversaries. I think she does realize that, but has yet to reason out the logical point there. As her politics have become more strident, she has come to expand responsibility for her son's death to all those who disagree with her political views -- which now turns out to be nearly all of America, including her once-allies.

I'm totally at a loss as to what happened in 1980 to make America different for Cindy. I don't think Reagan changed what America is, just as I don't think Jimmy Carter changed it in '76 after taking over from Ford. In fact, the last President to really change the face of America was FDR, in my estimation.

Posted by Joshua | May 30, 2007 9:58 PM

I'm totally at a loss as to what happened in 1980 to make America different for Cindy. I don't think Reagan changed what America is, just as I don't think Jimmy Carter changed it in '76 after taking over from Ford. In fact, the last President to really change the face of America was FDR, in my estimation.

As far as I can tell, Cindy's conception of America is closer to the worldview of the hippies and other anti-war types of the 1960s than to FDR or Carter (or at least, to Carter while he was in office). Those same Leftists were on a roll in American politics and culture ever since, until Reagan's election showed that even with Vietnam, Watergate and a hammerlock on American media, academia etc., the American Left were no longer the ascendant juggernauts they thought they were. That's why I picked 1980 as the year Cindy's America died. As I already mentioned, your reckoning may be different.