Mandatory Cindy Sheehan post - - - UPDATED

For those who aren't familiar, Sheehan is the woman whose son Casey died fighting in Iraq. She is now camped out down in Crawford, outside President Bush's ranch, drawing the attention of the Left, the Right, and the media. I don't want to spend too much time on this, for two reasons: 1) The rest of the blogosphere is already picking through the details 2) It's not too hard to see that she's using her son's death to further her political agenda. For example

"All we're asking is that he [Bush} sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq."

First of all, Sheehan already met (see update below) with President Bush, saying "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith." Secondly, Bush is out of The White House and on his own property, but c'mon . . . does any logical person really think he's just hanging out watching baseball all day? I'm not exactly an insider, but I have a feeling he's able to handle his daily workload with his advisers (who are for the most part in Crawford as well), the amazing feat of little-known technology called "telephones" and "computers." Besides. . . Congress is on a break right now.

Some of my (pro-war, conservative) friends have said that Bush should spend a few minutes out of his day to meet with her, and her alone, in order to deflate the sails of Sheehan and her supporters. My rebuttal to them is that that might set a dangerous precedent. He's already met with her, and many other family members of soldiers and Marines who've lost their lives. She says she wants to meet with Bush, and Bush has already met with her. But now she has cameras trained upon her.

Her family has now separated themselves from her and her political motives:

Cindy Sheehan "now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect."

Her agenda is not to question the President about the war, rather, it's to become a rallying point of anti-war activists everywhere. She's attracting the attention of Che Moore, the MoveOn Moonbats, etc. After all, she described the Bush Administration as "the biggest terrorist outfit in the world." How could the Left not rally around her? To them, she's nothing but a good sound bite; even better, she's the perfect poster to wave around at rallies. If her OWN FAMILY, who also loves and grieves for Casey Sheehan, is separating themselves from her, what does that tell you? How about I quote Instapunk real quick:

She has contrived to turn her son's death and the whole Iraq War into her own personal soap opera. This was all something done to her. By the President of the United States, no less. Let us take all our cameras to Texas and watch her bleed from her hands and feet.

Exactly. She was anti-war and anti-Bush before the war, and now that her unarguably courageous son has been killed in Iraq, she has a way to become the darling of the anti-war and anti-Bush folks on the Left, complete with a national media spotlight.

Cindy Sheehan has turned her and her family's personal tragedy into a circus-like farce.

P.S.- I recommend that you check out Malkin's coverage (not surprising, according to genie junkie); she has a good roundup of both blogger and MSM reactions.

UPDATE:
For all those people that think that the Drudge Report is just part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, here's a link to the Washington Post citing the same information. I guess the Post is now part of the VRWC too, eh? Stupid right-wingers. . . all those facts just ruin our day!