And what an ugly mug it is. There has always been something that bothered me about Cindy Sheehan, and at first I think it had something to do with the fact that she has a little girls' voice and the body of an old, and ugly, woman. There was something incongrous about that, but I tried to ignore it. After all, she can hardly help that.
But as time went on, I saw this as symptomatic. Cindy Sheehan's life is itself an incongruity. The fact that she was removed from the Capitol prior to the President's State Of The Union speech in itself was unfortunate, as it would be interesting to see exactly what her actions would have been had she been allowed to remain.
After all, this is a woman who has exhibited such a far left leaning political philosophy she has not confined herself to merely speaking out against the Iraqi War, in which she lost her son Casey, but has branched out into other areas. She has even spoken out against the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan in criticism of the forcible removal of the Taliban and the ongoing struggle there to build the fledgling democracy in that country.
She seems intent on building and holding onto her following, to the extent of issuing challenges to any Democratic Party official who propounds any position that smacks of centrist tendencies. First it was Hillary Clinton who came under scrutiny. Now she has endeavored to put out feelers about a potential Democratic Primary run for a California U.S. Senate seat against the current incumbent, Dianne Feinstein. If by some miracle she wins that primary, of course, you can chalk that up as a sure fire Senate gain for the GOP the following November.
Now, I understand that some people have showed her a lot of slack due to the loss of her son. But it occurred to me, I've known people just like her, of her political persuasion, and I'm not so sure about her stated devastation. One woman in particular that I knew personally, who was of a similarly far left persuasion, politically, had a son who joined the U.S. military, over her stern objections. She has disowned the son, and has vowed to never speak to him again.
Is Sheehan of the same ilk, I wondered? Hard to say, but I definitely have my suspicions, and I have lately heard that, indeed, she and Casey had in fact argued about his previous enlistment, and re-enlstment, in the U.S. military. She was dead set against the Iraqi War, and was admant that he have no part in it. Then, there is the fact that of all her family, she seemingly stands alone in her Quixotic anti-American zeal. She and her husband even divorced over it, though he, like the rest of the family, has been relatively silent.
I think I finally saw what I needed to see to convince me that I may at least be in part well grounded in my suspicions. An old film showed her standing in front of a banner, unfurled, which featured a picture of her dead son, Casey. She stood before it, the cameras rolling, as a crowd gathered around her. She stood facing the portrait, her mouth apape, wide open as she held her hand up to it, her eyes wide, in an expression of horror, seeming to try to control her anquish, her heartbreak, her anger at her loss.
And that is when it occurred to me-she's mugging for the cameras. And I fear she's doing it yet, today, only more and more, people are paying less and less attention. Her recent trip to Venzuela to meet with Hugo Chavez received little coverage, for example. But she keeps trying, and will continue to do so, as long as she keeps getting encouragement to do so.
It's a sad spectacle indeed.
