Sheehan Still Seeking the Spotlight, Missing the Point

Dueling war rallies return to Crawford
Sheehan is still focus of attention at rival campsites near Bush ranch

By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

CRAWFORD - It was deja vu in this sleepy, Central Texas town Friday as demonstrators staked out their patches of dusty roadside to argue for and against the war in Iraq.

"When I got here yesterday, I felt relief. I felt like I was home among friends," anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan told more than 70 supporters gathered at the Crawford Peace House.

As the anti-war group sang peace songs and dedicated a new sculpture in their peace garden, a driver in a pickup sped by shouting, "Go home, you freaking losers!"

Sheehan's return to Crawford coincides with President Bush's Thanksgiving vacation here and the return of dozens of journalists to cover him.

But with the president sequestered at his ranch, the only action in Crawford, so far, has been the return of Sheehan and her group along with a smaller retinue of pro-Bush demonstrators who set up camp at the corner of the town's only stoplight.

In many ways, the picture was the same as it was last summer, when Sheehan spent 26 days on the roadside near Bush's 1,600-acre ranch, demanding a meeting with the president. Sheehan's son, Casey, died in the Iraq war while serving in the Army.

Having spent so much time here, Sheehan said she understands Bush's love of the area, which she called "beautiful." Despite differences of opinion with the many Crawford residents, Sheehan said she has made a lot of friends and feels at home.

That doesn't sit well with the pro-Bush demonstrators who gather whenever Sheehan is in town. The group, which has varied in size from a handful to hundreds, is solidly behind the war and opposes Sheehan's call to bring the troops home now.

"We're just about to win this war, but there is a lot of disinformation out there," said Songman Callahan, a former resident of The Woodlands now living outside Meridian. "The fact is that the war is going on, and we might as well get behind the troops. We're not leaving, and we'd be stupid to even think of it at this point."

Cindy is a useful idiot for the Extreme Leftist Democrat Party. To hear her speak is to be instructed in ignorance and insipience. She has the charisma of a pan of meatloaf. And her rhetoric could inpire the liveliest of spirits to lie down and die. Her only source of bona fides is the dead son she dishonors with her every action. She is not a sympathetic figure, she is a pitiful figure. Were it not so easy, lampooning her would be a joyful endeavor. As it is, she is just painful to watch, as she makes an ass of herself and denigrates the service of her heroic son. One has to wonder how anyone could so hate her son that she would do him such a disservice. The only explanation I can come up with is that she is a Democrat.

Full Story: Not Sheehan Again...

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