Frank Rich: The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

[Wetzelbill]

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

by Frank Rich

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

The most prominent smear victims have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam résumés: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html

[highnooner]

1. Frank Rich

Makes an obvious case for why Bushco cannot stop it this time.

[YellerdawgFlorida]

2. "Forged documents??"

Is that gasbag insinuationing she forged her son's death certificate?? Disgusting doesn't begin to cover it!

[DrZeeLit]

3. Not exactly. He fumbled his "nuanced metaphor"... he was referring to

the whole Rathergate mess -- insinuating that Cindy is bogus in general, nothing to do with actual "documents."

But now I read somewhere he's backing off -- says he never said it.
Duh. I think transcripts abound.

What an armpit! (I don't use "asshole" because an asshole has a purpose, and an armpit doesn't... plus "armpit" you can say most anywhere w/o bugging people)

[DrZeeLit]

4. This is an AWESOME article. Succinct and true. Nominate!

Frank Rich is one of my heroes.
Bravo, Frank! You are on a roll!

I wish people who don't normally READ stuff, would read this and MAYBE a light would begin to glow above their heads -- ah ha!

I mean, come on... somebody has to start connecting the dots. The * admin is leaving A LOT OF DOTS all around the place. Sheesh!