Slagging Cindy: A Bridge Too Far?

For those who seriously don't give a damn about the loss of innocent (foreign) lives, living in BushWorld means revelling in a communal sense of power without precedent. It means never, ever admitting that you were wrong about anything. It means attacking anyone who disagrees with you in the most peurile way imaginable, secure in the knowledge that aggressive gangs of mind-numbingly stupid Bush supporters won't really care about the logic of the argument in any case. It means intimidating decent people into silence, or muddying the waters of any embarrasing facts to the point where half-interested spectators will write it all of as a case of partisan point-scoring.

That could all be about to change as right-wingers plumb new lows with tasteless attacks on a bereaved mother named Cindy Sheehan.

Rightwing talk show host Phil Hendrie calls her an "Ignorant Cow” and a “self-righteous ignoramus". Bill O’Reilly says her behavior "borders on treasonous" and she’s a tool of “far left elements.” All this week Matt Drudge has hammered on Sheehan, publicizing criticism by some of her family members, who say they support Bush and the war.

The New York Sun tars her as an anti-Semite:

The Sun also points out that Sheehan is working with the Crawford Peace House, and it says that group’s website “includes a photo depicting the entire state of Israel as Palestine.” Actually, it depicts a protester holding a sign showing four maps of what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories, noting how Palestinians have been allowed less and less land over the past 60 years.

Sheehan herself is not taking the bait:

The people who send our young, honorable, brave soldiers to die in this war, have no skin in the game. They don’t have any loved ones in harm’s way. As for people like O’Reilly and Hannity and Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh and all the others who are attacking me and parroting the administration line that we must complete the mission there -- they don’t have one thing at stake.

...

I’m going to be out here until one of three things happens: It’s August 31st and the president’s vacation ends and he leaves Crawford. They take me away in a squad car. Or he finally agrees to speak with me.

If he does, he’d better be prepared for me to hold his feet to the fire. If he starts talking about freedom and democracy -- or about how the war in Iraq is protecting America -- I’m not going to let him get away with it.

Like I said, this is George Bush’s accountability moment.

You go girl. And anyone who can , get your asses down to that roadside ditch in Crawford before the right-wing mobs grab all the prime camping sites.

UPDATE: They're here already:

The first counter-rally was Friday night, organized by another conservative radio talk-show host, Mike Gallagher. He brought many of the 100 Bush supporters by bus to the anti-war group's campsite, and the pro-Bush side waved flags, sang patriotic songs and chanted, "Go, George, go!