Posted on 08/09/2005 8:25:02 AM PDT by kristinn
Conservative online commentator Matt Drudge, the man behind the popular Drudge Report, on Monday accused Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, the mother of a fallen U.S. soldier, of changing her tune to serve political purposes.
Last summer, Cindy Sheehan and her husband, Patrick, had a face-to-face meeting with President Bush. Today, she remains camped outside the president's Texas ranch, in the glare of the national media spotlight, demanding another face-to-face meeting and calling for his impeachment.
The Sheehans' son, Casey, an Army specialist, was killed in an ambush in Iraq in April 2004. In June, the Sheehans spent 10 minutes at Forth Lewis, Wash., with the president, who met with 16 other families who had lost loved ones in the war.
Cindy Sheehan since has become a focal point in the partisan battle over the Iraq war, drawing the praise of many anti-war Democrats and the ire of Republicans who back Bush's decision.
Drudge joined the brouhaha with a story headlined "Protesting Soldier Mom Changed Story on Bush," posted in the highest slot on the Web site that receives more than 5 million visits per day.
It drew on quotes from a Sheehan interview published June 24, 2004, in The Reporter. Cindy Sheehan told reporter David Henson that she and husband debated before the meeting whether to ask pointed questions about the war and whether to vent their frustration over their son's sacrifice. Ultimately, they chose not to.
In Henson's story, Cindy Sheehan explained carefully: "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. ... I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."
Drudge also included more recent quotes from Sheehan highly critical of Bush and the 2004 meeting, including her comments made Sunday to CNN. "Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject," Sheehan told correspondent Wolf Blitzer. "And he acted like it was a party."
Drudge's report fueled debate on both sides of the political spectrum.
Posters on the highly visited liberal Web log Daily Kos said Drudge's report was misleading, while right-wing bloggers, including the popular Michelle Malkin, echoed Drudge's sentiments that Sheehan was contradicting herself, perhaps for political reasons.
Sheehan, in a press release distributed Monday by the Institute for Public Accuracy, explained she was "still in shock" during her 2004 meeting with the president.
"We had decided not to criticize the president then because during that meeting he assured us, 'This is not political.' And I believed him," Sheehan wrote. "Then, during the Republican National Convention, he exploited those meetings to justify what he was doing. It's now clear to me that what I had feared is true: Bush lied us into war, and Casey, more than 1,800 other Americans and thousands and thousands of Iraqis are dead because of what he did."
The Reporter reposted Henson's 2004 story on http://www.reporter.com Monday. It drew hundreds of visits in the first hour. "It's important that readers see the full context of the story, instead of just selected portions," said Editor Diane Barney.
Its newsworthiness was obvious as it contained contemperaneous quotes from Sheehan that were the exact opposite of what she says now about that meeting.
The press release statement issued yesterday by Sheehan does not address her disparate versions of the meeting, just her perspective on it.
Cindy Sheehan's Website has now scrubbed the original article from her site.
Exactly! The difference was her characterization of the meeting with President Bush. By saying now that he was insincere, cold, blah blah blah, it just doesn't wash with her description then. The only thing that has changed is HER feelings about the war.
Typical of her handlers. Still plying the trade they learned at Stalin's knee. Or on their knees in front of Stalin...
d.o.l
Criminal Number 18F
She has a website? And the left is saying she's NOT a leftist moonbat activist?
She should get her weekly check from Soros soon....
Well, that's certainly an objective application of labels, isn't it?
Drudge is focusing on her?? Of course the liberal stations who constantly shove microphones in her face and write down her every written word.....no, they just come across her by happenstance...
"She needs some meds"
Once again, FreeRepublic is THE clearinghouse for facts and accuracy and is also a research center which exposes MSM / liberal hypocrisy, misdirection and lies.
Good work to you, kristinn and to you tgslTakoma!
She does not have to make sense. But the rest of us should not have to pretend she makes sense when she is clearly conflicting her own previous statements. How anybody could report on her current statements without referencing her previous contradictory statements in the record and still think of themselves as a reporter is beyond my feeble understanding.
APPLAUSE LINE!
Ms. Sheehan can reflect on her war views and traitor position as her throat gets slit or cut off by Muslim terrorists who gained entry to this country because her beloved Democrat Party loves and makes nice with them. What a stupid woman. But, then again, there are millions of stupid Americans!!! The future should be interesting!!!
Go hit the Wayback Machine and enter the URL.
www.archive.org.
(Gone but not forgotten.)
Why doesn't someone just ask her, if Drudge misrepresented what she said, why did she feel the need to remove the entire article from her web site?
Not to mention the OVERWHELMING amount of Iraqi civilian deaths are caused by the foreign terrorists.
I really don't see how people can decry the horrible 'occupation' of Iraq, and get all fired up and riot about a made up story about a book being put in a toilet... yet be virtually silent (if not help) people who intentionally stalk, target, and murder dozens of muslim children, if they get the 'opportunity'.
Talk about 'blinded by the light'...
Exactly what does Sheehan think her son was volunteering for when he signed on the dotted line?
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