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The Useful Idiot
The Creators ^ | 8/19/5 | Tony Snow

Posted on 08/22/2005 7:57:54 PM PDT by Embraer2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Cindy Sheehan's supporters want you to call her Mother Sheehan -- not because she conducts herself in a saintly manner, nor because nurture defines her nature, but because it makes her an easier sell.

Here's Internet activist, dataguy: "We should call her 'Mother Sheehan.' ... 'Mother Sheehan' is her title, and expresses her ceremonial status as a bereaved mother, calling forth over the dead body of her son. She is not a person now, she is a mother, which is not an expression of her individuality, but rather the expression of her eternal character: the mother, the bringer of life who has been wronged by state power."

This vaporous encomium makes explicit what many have suspected from the start. Cindy Sheehan's backers and financiers do not consider her a "person." To them, she is a useful idiot, whom they will adore until the TV cameras go away.

Reporters get the joke, which is why they treat her with a wary sensitivity normally reserved for aggressive panhandlers. After all, this is a woman who has likened terrorist lawyer Lynn Stewart to Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird"; who has done Dick Durbin one better by calling the president the most prolific mass murderer alive; who has earned the praise and admiration of David Duke by calling Operation Iraqi Freedom a "war for Israel"; and who has accepted support from Code Pink, an organization that advocated aid to terrorists in Fallujah. Journalists would rather gargle acid than listen to such gormless gibberish, which is why they primly avoid asking her questions about her beliefs.

Even her personal recollections seem dotty and odd. When she and her husband met with President Bush in June 2004, she greeted the commander in chief by asking: "Why are we here? We're both Democrats. We didn't vote for you. We're never gonna vote for you!" Meanwhile, she never talks in detail about her son -- other than to mention that he is dead.

This is not how grieving moms express their "eternal character." It's what happens when people get utterly carried away with politics, transforming themselves from concerned citizens into boorish zealots.

Her "why are we here" remark does set a tone, however, and those of like minds and sensibilities have joined Mother Sheehan in her demand that President Bush alter his vacation plans, so he can hold another audience with her.

These fellow squatters include a man who refers to himself as Mr. Foot Massager. Mr. Foot Massager massages feet. Actually, he limits his ministrations to two feet, both of which belong to Mother Sheehan. He has become her designated bunion kneader.

The Merry Band also includes Patient Zero, a young fellow with a shock of hair the color of Tang. He has decorated his classical guitar with a sign, "My other guitar is a syringe," and a cryptic, spray-painted equation: "1001 = 0." He also comes equipped with a placard, which he held as the president drove by: "Honk if your kids are in Iraq."

Then there's Tom Laughlin of "Billy Jack" fame, who scheduled a drop-by. This is sort of like having Wink Martindale appear at the opening session of the United Nations. Participants vaguely recognize him, but they ask themselves: What on earth do you do with a faded minor celebrity? Offer him fizzy water? Give him a block of wood to crack with his bare hands? Ask for an autograph?

The same goes for the cadre of nostalgic malcontents, which includes septuagenarian ex-war protesters, a confirmed Beatnik and some people who regularly wear shoes. Their bodies are there, but alas, most of them abandoned their minds in 1968.

The "Peaceful Occupation of Crawford," as Sheehan has dubbed it, seems a protest less against war than against good manners, deodorant soap and the march of time. Yet, the most heart-rending feature of the entire spectacle is Cindy Sheehan herself. She seems to believe this transient crew will help her piece together her shattered life -- a dead son, a wrecked marriage, a shredded family. But how long can one lean on people who don't even call themselves by their own names?

Sheehan, taking her moment in the sun far too seriously, recently declared, "I am the spark the universe chose." That may be more true than she realizes. Like an ember whirling into the night sky, her spark will ascend, then darken: leaving behind a peacenik version of Courtney Love -- an ashen specter you might expect to see standing by a roadside, bearing a hand-lettered sign: "I was somebody. Once."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cindysheehan; news; tonysnow; usefulidiots
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1 posted on 08/22/2005 7:58:02 PM PDT by Embraer2004
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To: Embraer2004

Sheehan can be described in three words: tragic, pathetic and insipid


2 posted on 08/22/2005 8:03:10 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Crush! Kill! Destroy the heathen!)
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To: Embraer2004
"I am the spark the universe chose."

Sheesh. What a kook. Coo-coo. Coo-coo.

3 posted on 08/22/2005 8:05:36 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal.")
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To: Embraer2004

She's about as useful as Joe Wilson to the Democrats - and will be about as long remembered...


4 posted on 08/22/2005 8:06:16 PM PDT by decal ("The Republic was not established by cowards, and cowards will not preserve it")
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To: Embraer2004
To them, she is a useful idiot, whom they will adore until the TV cameras go away.

Then they'll toss her in the ditch like one of their used condoms, and she'll commit suicide once reality sits in. Then, it will be all Bush's fault, and she'll be ordained a liberal goddess.

5 posted on 08/22/2005 8:08:53 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal.")
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Sheehan can be described in three words: tragic, pathetic and insipid

How about "disloyal" (to her son and his strong beliefs in the war)?

6 posted on 08/22/2005 8:08:57 PM PDT by SiliconValleyGuy
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To: Embraer2004

I don't usually watch the NBC Nightly News, but tonight I did. If there was any mention of Cindy the Moonbat I missed it. Looks like the clock is ticking on her fifteen minutes.


7 posted on 08/22/2005 8:09:34 PM PDT by billnaz (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't you understand?)
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To: Embraer2004

I agree the prefix to her name should be "Mother", I just dissagree with the sufix.


8 posted on 08/22/2005 8:10:28 PM PDT by Boiling point (If God had not meant for man to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat!)
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To: Embraer2004
She is not a person now, she is a mother...

Mothers are not people?

9 posted on 08/22/2005 8:11:45 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all.)
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To: Embraer2004
Cindy Sheehan's supporters want you to call her Mother Sheehan

The Left sure has a thing for making false families.

"Mother Sheehan" (Anti-American Leftist)
"Uncle Joe" (Mass-Murderer Josef Stalin)
...and so on, and so on...

10 posted on 08/22/2005 8:11:53 PM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: Embraer2004

And all along, I thought this 'Mother Sheehan' bit was an FR parody.


11 posted on 08/22/2005 8:12:41 PM PDT by RedBeaconNY (Vous parlez trop, mais vous ne dites rien.)
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To: Embraer2004

I was sick of her after the first 30 second sound-byte of her. Her son was a volunteer and knew what he was getting himself involved with. He had the option of staying in the rear but chose to go on ahead because one of his own was in trouble. If that isn't the mark of a hero, i don't know what is. His mother on the other hand has turned him into a propaganda peice and trivialized his actions. Shame on you Cindy.


12 posted on 08/22/2005 8:12:55 PM PDT by Nipplemancer (Abolish the DEA !)
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To: Embraer2004
"I was somebody. Once."

Well....to a handful of far left wing commies, anyway. Most people have no idea who the kooky woman is on TV, nor do they care. I know who she is, and my give a damn doesn't even register.

13 posted on 08/22/2005 8:13:33 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal.")
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

People on the right are always careful to respect her status as grieving mother before criticizing her as a stooge. I don't. She is responsible for her actions and statements no matter her loss, and deserves the contempt, disgust, and hatred due any traitor. The only reason this country may someday not be worth dying for is if her kind get their way. If her heroic son were alive he would die of shame and dishonor.


14 posted on 08/22/2005 8:15:19 PM PDT by DC Bound (American greatness is the result of great individuals seeking to be anything but equal.)
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To: Tony Snow

I'm going to try to use "vaporous encomium" in a sentence on the TONY SNOW thread tomorrow morning.


15 posted on 08/22/2005 8:15:38 PM PDT by doug from upland (The Hillary documentary is coming -- INDICTING HILLARY)
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To: Embraer2004
What on earth do you do with a faded minor celebrity?

Grab his hat. Play catch with the hat and your friends. When he cries, throw the hat into the ditch and stomp on it.

16 posted on 08/22/2005 8:19:03 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon (Recall Barbara Boxer)
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To: Embraer2004

Phew, I thought it was another Hagel thread.


17 posted on 08/22/2005 8:19:51 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: DC Bound

Exactly!!


18 posted on 08/22/2005 8:28:29 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: jwalsh07
Phew, I thought it was another Hagel thread.

LOL. This guy actually wants to try for the presidency? I DON'T THINK SO, CHUCK!!!

19 posted on 08/22/2005 8:30:13 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal.")
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To: RedBeaconNY

yeah, sort of like Rush's "The Wrevrnnnnnnnnnd JAKS'nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn......."


20 posted on 08/22/2005 8:34:05 PM PDT by Hand em their arse
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