The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

[CatWoman]

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

[Swamp Rat]

1. HAHAHA! Geaux Cindy!!!

What a bunch of scared, little weenies! :rofl:

[wtmusic]

2. One of Rich's best nt

[blm]

3. NONE of those smear tactics could have worked without corporate media

complicity aiding BushInc every step of the way.

[CatWoman]

4. and Thank Frank for pointing that out

not only the corporate media, but their web attack dogs as well.


:hi:

[Generic Other]

5. posted link here:

8/21 ALL DU Cindy threads DAY 15
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4413475

Please help me kick the "All Cindy thread" to the greatest page. It makes it easier to keep the news at the top!

Thanks Catwoman for posting Rich's article. :hug:

[mrdmk]

6. Name calling is Mr. Bush Jr.'s administrations specialty

As a group they cannot discuss the facts.

[Loge23]

7. "....heeeeer's Karl!"

So we know soon-to-be disgraced policy-meister rove is still kicking.
This has rove's slimy prints all over it.
What an outrage. Never answer, never explain, never apologize. Instead, attack!
Hopefully, this country will learn from this disasterous exercise in apathy as the Germans and Japanese learned from their failures.

[CatWoman]

8. I think Rove has been somewhat "defanged"

as Frank Rich pointed out, this time the smears aren't sticking.