The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan (NYT / Frank Rich)

[jefferson_dem]

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

By FRANK RICH
Published: August 21, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

<SNIP>

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real."

<SNIP>

When the Bush mob attacks critics like Ms. Sheehan, its highest priority is to change the subject. If we talk about Richard Clarke's character, then we stop talking about the administration's pre-9/11 inattentiveness to terrorism. If Thomas Wilson is trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media," we forget the Pentagon's abysmal failure to give our troops adequate armor (a failure that persists today, eight months after he spoke up). If we focus on Joseph Wilson's wife, we lose the big picture of how the administration twisted intelligence to gin up the threat of Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D.'s.

The hope this time was that we'd change the subject to Cindy Sheehan's "wacko" rhetoric and the opportunistic left-wing groups that have attached themselves to her like barnacles. That way we would forget about her dead son. But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait, much of the public has not

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html?ex=1282276800&en=6c0954bcc1bcb9a0&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

[BrklynLiberal]

1. THE EMPEROR IS NAKED! THE EMPEROR IS NAKED! and people

are finally saying it out loud!!! hooray!
/:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[SpiralHawk]

2. Never forget

"CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing."

Every American needs to be reminded.

[KittyWampus]

7. weren't there 52 more warnings as well? just out of curiosity?

[Al-CIAda]

30. Yes...and it was the summer of 'hair on fire'. nt

[CBHagman]

3. Taut, concise, and utterly devastating.

I am so tempted to mail that to a good many people, especially those who buy into the images put forth by the administration (not that I know many such people at this point, but still...).

[senseandsensibility]

5. I love good writing

that is supported by logic and facts, don't you?

[CBHagman]

27. We have that in Rich.

There are many eloquent spokespeople on our side, and Rich is one of the most outstanding. I love the fact that he doesn't tiptoe past truly ugly realities.

[Radio_Lady]

36. This morning, I was unable to email this important article to others.

I'll just try to copy it to a .doc file to do this.

[splat@14]

4. Great Op/ed, thank you for posting this. n/t

[susu369]

6. Excellent

And thank you, Mr. Rich, for pointing out this:

"...surely it was a joke that one of the emissaries Mr. Bush sent to Cindy Sheehan in Crawford was Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser who took responsibility for allowing the 16 errant words about doomsday uranium into the president's prewar State of the Union speech."

[Gay Green]

18. * must have thought it was a joke, too.

:mad: :grr: :nuke:

[dalloway]

8. "the insurgency at home" Rich writes

"... the White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq."

Bravo, Mr. Rich, and thank you to the NY Times for moving this incredible writer to the Editorial pages.

Long live the resistance!

We battle the them HERE so that they don't have to battle them THERE.

[Dudley_DUright]

9. The only good thing that came out of the 2004 election

is that "swiftboating" has now become a verb describing a hateful, untruthful attack on an opponent. Thanks for that much anyway, John O'Neill.

[DemoTex]

10. Frank Rich kicks Bu$h's sorry ass with a steel-toed boot (OUCH!).

Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5089&en=6c0954bcc1bcb9a0&ex=1282276800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1124584247-eWmuXM9fjdt36cJZ73HlgA

So much more! Read it slowly, then enjoy it again. Pass it on. One of Frank's best ever.

Mac

[Tin Man]

11. Rich delivers the blistering truth in this OpEd. Nominated. eom

[flpoljunkie]

12. Frank Rich, the best thing the NYT has going for it, really nails Bushco!

THIS summer in Crawford, the White House went to this playbook once too often. When Mr. Bush's motorcade left a grieving mother in the dust to speed on to a fund-raiser, that was one fat-cat party too far. The strategy of fighting a war without shared national sacrifice has at last backfired, just as the strategy of Swift Boating the war's critics has reached its Waterloo before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury in Washington. The 24/7 cable and Web attack dogs can keep on sliming Cindy Sheehan. The president can keep trying to ration the photos of flag-draped caskets. But this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html?e...

[babylonsister]

13. I LOVE Frank Rich! So refreshing to read the truth! nt

[rodeodance]

16. Read the last line--it is great.

....Casey Sheehan's death in Iraq could not be more representative of the war's mismanagement and failure, but it is hardly singular. Another mother who has journeyed to Crawford, Celeste Zappala, wrote last Sunday in New York's Daily News of how her son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was also killed in April 2004 - in Baghdad, where he was providing security for the Iraq Survey Group, which was charged with looking for W.M.D.'s "well beyond the admission by David Kay that they didn't exist."

As Ms. Zappala noted with rage, her son's death came only a few weeks after Mr. Bush regaled the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association banquet in Washington with a scripted comedy routine featuring photos of him pretending to look for W.M.D.'s in the Oval Office. "We'd like to know if he still finds humor in the fabrications that justified the war that killed my son," Ms. Zappala wrote. (Perhaps so: surely it was a joke that one of the emissaries Mr. Bush sent to Cindy Sheehan in Crawford was Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser who took responsibility for allowing the 16 errant words about doomsday uranium into the president's prewar State of the Union speech.)

Mr. Bush's stand-up shtick for the Beltway press corps wasn't some aberration; it was part of the White House's political plan for keeping the home front cool. America was to yuk it up, party on and spend its tax cuts heedlessly while the sacrifice of an inadequately manned all-volunteer army in Iraq was kept out of most Americans' sight and minds. This is why the Pentagon issued a directive at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom forbidding news coverage of "deceased military personnel returning to or departing from" air bases. It's why Mr. Bush, unlike Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, has not attended funeral services for the military dead. It's why January's presidential inauguration, though nominally dedicated to the troops, was a gilded $40 million jamboree at which the word Iraq was banished from the Inaugural Address.

THIS summer in Crawford, the White House went to this playbook once too often. When Mr. Bush's motorcade left a grieving mother in the dust to speed on to a fund-raiser, that was one fat-cat party too far. The strategy of fighting a war without shared national sacrifice has at last backfired, just as the strategy of Swift Boating the war's critics has reached its Waterloo before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury in Washington. The 24/7 cable and Web attack dogs can keep on sliming Cindy Sheehan. The president can keep trying to ration the photos of flag-draped caskets. But this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq.

[sunnystarr]

14. Excellent and recommended

Everyone should read this, I savored every single word.

[faithnotgreed]

15. kick for truth

[bear425]

17. Wow. Just wow. emailed to many. thanks for posting. n/t

[DemReadingDU]

19. Excellent!

[me b zola]

20. Stunning

Frank Rich should be applauded. He said exactly what needed to be said with a scalding delivery.

:applause:






nominated

[NJCher]

21. Thank you, Mr. Rich

For recounting the details of Casey Sheehan's death and the utter incompetency that caused it. The lies that were told then and that continue to be told, misrepresenting the fact that the Iraqis will never be able to hold off dissenting factions and if the truth be known, have no motive whatsoever to do so. Why would any of them fight for American oil companies, anyway?

What's even more of an accomplishment is that Rich points out that the factions that killed Casey Sheehan are players in the current Iraqi government.

I am sure Cindy knows this and it makes Casey's death an even more bitter pill to swallow. The truth is horrific.


Cher

[benny05]

22. Rich is a good writer

I just saw the following...and talking about Swift Boating on a RW blog:

http://www.sweetness-light.com/?p=24


:puke:

[DrZeeLit]

23. This article on at least 3 threads. GREAT!

Couldn't happen to a more deserving writer!

Like I said in anothe thread -- I wish we could slip this one under the doors of so many people who are about to "get it" -- maybe the light would go on over their heads? Ah ha!

Come on...they gotta be connecting the dots soon... cuz... this admin has left A LOT OF DOTS LYING AROUND -- local, national, and international dots.

Bravo, Frank Rich!!!

As an English prof, I love the transfer from noun to verb re: swift boating. Cool!

[tinfoilinfor2005]

24. The only downside of this brilliant article is that we, the choir

will be the only ones to read it.

If only it was made mandatory reading for every citizen if they wished to keep their citizen status.

[Beetwasher]

25. "But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait..."

Much of the media is filthy, propogandistic scum and the Sheehan story is proof of that...I'm glad Rich sees this..

[freedomfries]

26. Thanks for posting

Good catch Jefferson Dem!

[Tigress DEM]

28. I'm telling the NYT - Good Job!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Tigress DEM]

29. I'm telling the NYT - Good Job!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Orion The Hunter]

31. RE: NYT article

An excellent article about the real point of Mrs. Sheehan's protest and why GW and Co. just don't get it....

[PinkyisBlue]

32. Frank Rich

This is writing at its finest!

I loved the way he discussed other recent swift boat victims in the 6th paragraph; however, this time they have failed, Cindy won't be stopped by their slimy tactics.

[DJ MEW]

33. great writing

we need to get this published on every news paper all over the country

[paineinthearse]

34. John Conyers' blog on swiftboating Cindy

see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2028168&mesg_id=2028168

[paineinthearse]

35. Sharon Jumper in Kos used the term "swiftboating" on 8/17

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2014875

[MrBenchley]

37. Speaking of Casey Sheehan...

"There are some things that George Bush should know about Casey Sheehan should he choose to sit down and talk with his mom. ...
Perhaps the conversation ought to start about the other seven men who died on April 4, 2004 in Sadr City.
From the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas were:
Sgt. Yihjyh L. Chen, 31, of Saipan, Marianas Protectorate.
Spc. Robert R. Arsiaga, 25, of San Antonio, Texas.
Spc. Stephen D. Hiller, 25, of Opelika, Ala.
Spc. Ahmed A. Cason, 24, of McCalla, Ala.
Spc. Israel Garza, 25, of Lubbock, Texas.
From the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Ray Barracks, Friedberg, Germany was Sgt. Michael W. Mitchell, 25, of Porterville, Calif.
And, from Casey’s unit, the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas was Cpl. Forest J. Jostes, 22, of Albion, Ill.
Maybe George Bush could clarify why these men died. According to several press reports, they were attacked and killed by forces loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And where is al-Sadr today? He’s a player in the Shiite community in Iraq which is on the verge of installing Islam as the basis of government in Iraq. In effect, Casey and his comrades were killed by people whose leaders are on the verge of taking control in Iraq."

http://dcmediagirl.com/index.php?entry=entry20050822-221642