Democrats, Elections 2008, and Sheehan

If you have seen Mrs. Sheehan's commercial, you know that she is saying that there were no WMDs in Iraq and no relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda and that Bush lied in that the real reason for the war was so that Bush's oil company friends could get rich (blood for oil).

This is a longstanding political line in the Democrat Party and it has the support of some Congressional Democrats.

Here is a list of Democrats who signed Conyers letter to have the President meet with Democrat Sheehan:

John Conyers, Jr.; Goerge Miller; Maxine Waters; Corrine Brown; Dennis Kucinich; Carolyn Maloney; Jim McDermott; Jim McGovern; Barbara Lee; Zoe Lofgren; James Oberstar; John Lewis; Bernard Sanders; Bob Filner; Mike Honda; Raul Grijalva; Jan Schakowsky; Carolyn Cheeks Kilpartick; Frank Pallone; Major Owens; Xavier Becerra; Lynn Woolsey; Danny Davis; Jerrold Nadler; Elijah Cummings; Hilda Solis; Gwen Moore; John Olver; Pete Stark; Sam Farr; Julia Carson; Sheila Jackson Lee; Daine Watson; Chris Van Hollen; Lloyd Doggett; Betty McCollum; Henry Waxman; and Peter DeFazio

Here is what Mrs. Sheehan said recently (Note, I have removed her dirty words.)

“That lying...., George Bush, is taking a five-week vacation in time of war,” Cindy Sheehan told 200 cheering members of Veterans For Peace at their annual convention in Dallas last Friday evening. She then announced she would go to Bush’s vacation home in nearby Crawford, Texas and camp out until he “tells me why my son died in Iraq. I’ve got the whole month of August off, and so does he.”

Sheehan left the VFP meeting on Saturday morning and is now in Crawford with a couple dozen veterans and local peace activists, waiting for Bush to talk with her. She said in Dallas that if he sends anyone else to see her, as happened when national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin did later that day, she would demand that “You get that maniac out here to talk with me in person.”

She told the audience of veterans from World War Two to today’s war in Iraq, that the two main things she plans to tell the man she holds responsible for son Casey’s death are “Quit saying that U.S. troops died for a noble cause in Iraq, unless you say, ‘well, except for Casey Sheehan.’ Don’t you dare spill any more blood in Casey’s name. You do not have permission to use my son’s name.”

“And the other thing I want him to tell me is ‘just what was the noble cause Casey died for?’ Was it freedom and democracy? ....! He died for oil. He died to make your friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East. We’re not freer here, thanks to your PATRIOT Act. Iraq is not free. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism,” she exclaimed.

“There, I used the ‘I’ word – imperialism,” the 48 year-old mother quipped. “And now I’m going to use another ‘I’ word – impeachment – because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.”

As the veterans in Dallas rose to their feet, Sheehan said defiantly, “My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don’t owe you a penny...you give my son back and I’ll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we’ll put this war on trial.”

(Note: I am not linking this because of Mrs. Sheehan's dirty language.)

President Bush's gracious response:

"I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan," Bush told reporters Thursday. "She feels strongly about her position, and she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America."

"I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place," Bush said. "I also have heard the voices of those saying: Pull out now. And I've thought about their cry and their sincere desire to reduce the loss of life by pulling our troops out. I just strongly disagree."

Immediate withdrawal "would send a terrible signal to the enemy," he said. "It would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so."

The 2008 fall Congressional elections

It will be interesting to watch the Democrats try to deal with this split being caused by the leftists in their party. Clinton himself has said that he himself thought that there were WMDs in Iraq and newly released documents confirm the ties between Iraq and international terrorism. Do the Democrats want to run on the platform that Bush spent blood in Iraq for oil in order to make his friends rich?

 

Thanks, Ken. The lady seems to be a Catholic activist of some kind (a Catholic youth camp where Sheehan worked as a counselor and organized youth retreats, St. Mary's Church, Vacaville, California) so it may be that she is just following the Vatican political line enunciated by the late Pope John Paul II.