REACT: Cindy sells out America

Once the public spotlight has passed you by, it is not easy to get the ego boosting limelight back. This is obvious in the case of Cindy Sheehan. Her protest over the death of her war hero son seems to have brought her long-standing left wing kookiness into full public view.

Oh sure! At first, she gained natural sympathy for her sobbing appearances in the press. We were all hoodwinked into thinking she was merely overcome with grief. That was until it became apparent that she was using her son’s death rather than mourning it. Whatever were the tears of real grief, they gave way to cry-for-the-camera tactics -- and a nation took note.

It would appear now that her insatiable craving for media attention has driven her to the extreme of disloyalty to the troops she shames to acclaim. In the name of their well-being, she endangers them further by aiding and abetting their would-be killers. Sheehan is no longer a misguided grieving parent, but a traitor to both her son’s memory and this nation’s cause. She has become the international spokesperson for the murderous terrorists of the world.

Why such a harsh assessment? It is not the silly threat of taking on California Senator Dianne Feinstein in the next election. That is merely an ego-feeding publicity stunt that only adds to Sheehan’s publicity-seeking reputation. It is not even her hateful, anti-Bush remarks that only prove that free-speech is equally the right of the intelligent and articulate and those challenged in both categories.

The real offense is her recent overseas adventure that brought her mania to the edge of treason. It is that image of her in Venezuela (left – of course), smiling broadly and embraced, figuratively and literally, by President Hugo Chavez as he reiterated his pervasive enmity for the United States and his allegiance to the world anti-American alliance. She gave a “thumbs up” as he condemned the United States action in Iraq, and as he promised to help finance Sheehan’s anti war petition drives. He offered to set up a tent next to hers outside the Bush Ranch in Texas.

For her part, Sheehan endorsed and supported has-been singer/actor Harry Belafonte’s claim, perhaps senility inspired, that George Bush is “the greatest terrorist in the world.” (Perhaps his signature recording, “Yellow Bird” was more his autobiographical anthem than the charming island ditty we all thought it to be). Sheehan is not a war hater. She has now proven herself to be an America hater. Is she could find Ben Ladin, I would not be surprised to see her issuing taped threats from a cave on the Pakistani border.

I guess Sheehan noticed that meeting heads of state is a boilerplate publicity stunt for virtually all ambitious senate candidates. Someone forgot to tell her however that you are still supposed to be a loyal America. World War II’s Tokyo Rose (unbowed and incarcerated) and Vietnam’s Hanoi Jane (repentant and rich) were not seeking high office.

However, it is good to know that no matter how badly things go for Bush, he can always count on the loony left to make him look good.

Postscript: As I again looked at the Sheehan/Chavez photo, I wonder if I have totally missed something. Is that a “thumbs up?” Or is she doing a line of South American snow off her hand? Is she supporting or snorting? Now THAT would make a lot more sense than any other explanation for both her bizarre emergence from well-deserved obscurity and her goofier public antics.