Eleanor Clift: "Bush has bigger problems than Cindy Sheehan"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

A Historical Footnote
Cindy Sheehan represents only a small part of America’s greater tragedy in Iraq.

By Eleanor Clift, Newsweek
Updated: 4:27 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2005

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9008721/site/newsweek/

Aug. 19, 2005 - Any other politician who had a Gold Star mother in his driveway would get the cameras rolling, give her a big hug and gain points for compassion. Instead of doing what should come naturally to a democratic leader, President George W. Bush deepened the crisis enveloping his presidency by arrogantly refusing to grant Cindy Sheehan an audience. He may have missed that opportunity for good now that Sheehan has rushed to California to see about her ailing mother.

Before Sheehan left Crawford, Texas, on Thursday, Bush explained to reporters that he needs to get on with his life, a remark stunningly insensitive to the thousands of maimed soldiers returning from Iraq, and the families of the more than 1,800 dead. Cycling, his new exercise narcotic, is important, he went on, because Americans want to know that their president leads a balanced life. No, Mr. President, we just want to know that you’re balanced, period.

There’s a war going on. Americans are dying, and so are Iraqis. August is already one of the bloodiest months since this ill-fated venture was launched more than three years ago. “Setting aside talking to Cindy Sheehan, he should be talking to (the American people),” says Marshall Wittman, a policy analyst with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and a former adviser to Sen. John McCain. Wittman supported the invasion of Iraq, but says the management of the war has been a failure. He can’t think of a single Republican elected official who defends the way the administration is handling the war. “They’re hiding,” he says.

So is Bush. A five-week vacation is a luxury you’d expect of a French president, not an American leader in the midst of a war. Maybe he’s agonizing in private and rethinking his strategy, but his behavior conveys an unsettling disconnect from reality. His problem is not Cindy Sheehan and her heroic stand but the facts on the ground in Iraq and an administration in disarray over what to do. It’s becoming clear this is not a winnable war. The insurgency is not in its last throes, as the vice president claimed some months ago. It’s getting stronger, and the notion that an Iraqi Army can take over any time soon is pure fantasy. “We’re training up the civil-war factions of tomorrow,” says an aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

[babylonsister]

1. I have to nominate because I love Eleanor Clift and because

no truer words have been spoken lately. The blivet needs to get on with his life???

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. I saw that cartoon on DU recently...

...I'm not sure if it was in one of your posts or not, but it certainly gets right to the heart of the matter, doesn't it?

:patriot:

[babylonsister]

6. No, I take no claim for the 'toon, but it had a grave impact on me.

I sent it to my sister, and she also commented on it. Does get to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? :(

[Cha]

22. Ben Sargent Nails it with this

political strip.

It's what we've all been saying on DU for the last few days.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Give it a couple of months, it is getting worse

Even NPR is talking about how Iraq is either already in or very close to civil war now.

bush has gone into what can only described as hiding now. Every day that goes by makes things worse for the US and bush.

[Auntie Bush]

4. Bush looks like a moron in need of Botox.

[Imagevision]

5. I believe vecause of Cindy, Bush got of Crawford to vacation.

When Cindy arrives in Washington, I believe Bush will schedual out of country "meetings" as the clock is running out with Mr. Fitgerald's fact finding mission!

[MissMarple]

7. The insurgency is not in it's last throes, as the( vp) claimed... whoa.

Is that speaking truth to power? And she says the dems are mostly silent, except Russ Feingold. With Feingold's and Hagel's recent comments taken into account, I think things are much worse than we know. I think that is why George is avoiding any contact with Cindy. At this point only the Iraqis can really pull this off and we are the fly in the ointment. I am beginning to think pulling the troops out and bringing in a real coalition of the willing, including regional interests is becoming the only viable alternative.

"As former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer puts it, Bush’s reckless invasion of Iraq has turned a man (Osama bin Laden) and an organization (Al Qaeda) into a philosophy and a movement, insuring a violent and bloody struggle that will continue for decades."

[TwilightZone]

8. "Any other politician..."

Wow, she is so right. Can you imagine Bill Clinton in the same situation? He would have turned this into a huge plus.

[City Lights]

9. "A five-week vacation is a luxury you’d expect of a French president"

Ha-ha, she knows exactly where to hit him. The "boycott France" crowd ain't gonna like that one!

[judy]

15. What French President has ever gone on a five-week vacation???

I was born and raised in France, and I am searching my memory, and can't find anyone, whether they were good or bad, or in the midst of a war or not...

I don't like this slur... :mad:

[City Lights]

16. Maybe she was referencing the longer vacations Europeans get

in general (not necessarily European leaders) and chose to use "French" for maximum impact with ** supporters. :shrug:

[Cha]

23. That's the way I took..Europeans

seem to know how to balance their lives better..kind like bush is tryin' to do Only he started this massaceur and he doesn't get to get on with his life when he's responsible for so many deaths.

[hadrons]

39. the French remark is a jab at the Dumbya-lovers ....

[sunnystarr]

10. The best line in this piece....

No, Mr. President, we just want to know that you're balanced, period.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

11. When it comes to wordcraft, Clift is a laser surgeon.

She's damned good.

:toast:

[Gay Green]

17. The problem is we already know

that he's flat-out beside himself (insane), period.

[Cha]

24. I was rolling that around in

my head after I read it, too! :toast:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

45. As in "mentally balanced?"

I think he is NOT !

[quiet.american]

12. Was former adviser to John McCain, now with the DLC

That just about sums up why the Democratic Party comes off as not knowing what it stands for. Can you imagine a former adviser to Bill Clinton now with the RNC?

“Setting aside talking to Cindy Sheehan, he should be talking to (the American people),” says Marshall Wittman, a policy analyst with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and a former adviser to Sen. John McCain. Wittman supported the invasion of Iraq, but says the management of the war has been a failure.

[welshTerrier2]

13. oh, it's worse than that ...

source: http://www.theprogressiveguys.com/index.php?id=C0_5_1

"The essay is by Marshall Whittman, a self-avowed McCainiac who has moved from thinktank to thinktank in the past few years, going from Heritage Foundation to the Hudson Institute to the DLC/Progressive Policy Institute."

and they wonder what prompted Kennedy to issue the statement shown in my sig ...

[quiet.american]

25. Thanks for the background -- strange bedfellows - not.

Further:
DLC/Progressive Policy Institute = Oxymoron. Great statement by Ted Kennedy.

[jaysunb]

30. It just "jumps" out at you !

He's been quoted many times here lately, and every time I see it, I wonder, " what the fuck are these people thinking about?" Are Democrats so short of personnel, who, just happen to be, passionate DEMOCRATS? Why do we need to hire AND designate as spokespeople, Republican hacks ????

I will work even harder now to see the grassroots rid ourselves of these idiots. !

[peacetalksforall]

14. Another woman comes through. Good job, Eleanor! Right on. n/t,

[cliss]

18. Good Lord, what a photo.

using the word 'disgrace' doesn't even come close to it. Christ, what a horrific Bad Odor he's been on the American public (and the world) for the past 5 years. There's no getting away from him, either.

He's always somewhere - on the radio, on TV, in the newspaper, on the Internet. And if you try to hide out here at the DU, he's still here (just kidding).

Yes, Bush does have a bigger problem than Cindy Sheehan. It's called

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

[Arugula Latte]

19. Oh my fucking god look at that moronic imbecile's face!!!

Please tell me this is a bad dream and this fuckwit is not masquerading as president.

Please, wake me up.

Please.

Now.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

27. Sorry, it's not a dream and that photo is real...

...so is this one:

[txindy]

40. Ack! He's come to suck our blood!

Vampire alert!

He's never heard of Visine, either, has he?

I vote for a bad dream, too. 'kay? Please?

[rosesaylavee]

41. Hmmm. Red, unfocused eyes...

Under the influence? And I am not talking Cheney or Rove.

[nookiemonster]

35. Look at this way,

at least he LOOKS more like a madman now.

:crazy:

[Olney Blue]

20. Eleanor Clift always delivers.

I like the way she thinks.

[Cha]

21. This paragraph has a blood-curdling prescience about it..

"If only Bush’s biggest mistake was refusing to meet with Sheehan. She is a footnote to the greater catastrophe of Iraq, a war without end that we cannot win and cannot leave. As former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer puts it, Bush’s reckless invasion of Iraq has turned a man (Osama bin Laden) and an organization (Al Qaeda) into a philosophy and a movement, insuring a violent and bloody struggle that will continue for decades."


Especially since that's what we predicted BEFORE the Invasion of Iraq.

[Gloria]

26. "his new exercise narcotic"---wow...

eom

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

28. Bernie Ward called Bush a "dry drunk" the other night...

...he discussed all of the repressed rage, all of the things that made him an alcoholic and a substance abuser...and while he MAY have given up alcohol (and I have my doubts), NONE of the "root causes" have ever been ADDRESSED.

He lives in a sheltered world, and the only people who are allowed close to him are those who agree with him and don;t upset him.

It's too bad that KGO told Ben Burch to take the Bernie Ward archive shows off of his "White Rose Society" Web site. Bernie was on a rampage that night (the night after the idiot in the pickup truck mowed down the Camp Casey crosses).

But yes, his "new narcotic"...Bush is basically an untreated addict, and if endorphins are his current "drug," then the addict has his fix.

[eleny]

42. This brings to mind Cindy's recent words

"I wonder if any of them had authentic mother-child relationships and if they are surprised that there are so many mothers in this country who are bear-like when it comes to wanting the truth and who want to make meaning of their child's needless and seemingly meaningless deaths?"

[omega minimo]

29. "...a remark stunningly insensitive..."

"Bush explained to reporters that he needs to get on with his life, a remark stunningly insensitive to the thousands of maimed soldiers returning from Iraq, and the families of the more than 1,800 dead."

ELEANOR ROCKS!

[jaysunb]

31. the drip drip, is turning into a flood

the storm clouds are gathering.

What say you Mr. Fitzgerald ??

[wisteria]

32. I don't agree with all she said. The Bush comments were good

however, I thought she was to hard on the Dems and doesn't really grasp that Cindy Sheehan's cause would be hampered with Dem politicians involved. It would look like a political maneuver and would loose credibility.(think about Santorium going to Florida to support Terri Schivio's parents). I also thought her comments about Kerry were incorrect too. By repeating a gaffe and suggesting that Kerry didn't take on Bush and criticize the war planning and motivation for the war is absolutely wrong. I don't fault Kerry for wanting to make the best out of a bad war situation. Morally, we had and still have an obligation to try and fix this country Bush has helped to ruin and honor our dead soldiers by coming out of this with some positives. I'm patient to a point, but Bush needs to achieve something positive soon or it all will be to late.

[Catrina]

33. A hundred thousand dead Iraqis

a country destroyed, untold numbers of maimed and wounded, both American and Iraqi, nearly two thousand dead US troops and more coalition troops!!! Not to mention the kidnapped, the beheaded, the stolen billiions!! He has created a hell on earth in that country and for many in this country, hell for those returning and their families for decades to come.

I think that's more than enough leeway to give someone before we decide this is a person who should have been stopped a long, long time ago!! Patient? To have been patient with any of this will be the shame of the American people for a long time to come. It was too late the day he was installed as president, imo.

[tsuki]

37. Dem politicians not supporting Sheehan are the new talking

point. Saw it on Maher last night. Very pointed.

[eleny]

43. It didn't hurt Sheehan or Maxine Waters when Ms. Waters visited

Nor did it seem to hurt when Congresswoman Lee called to give Sheehan her support. :shrug:

[JDPriestly]

34. Great post! Great Emerson quote! Thanks.

[AtomicKitten]

36. Yabbut

They will use Cindy Sheehan to dump all their troubles on. She's responsible for things going badly in Iraq and for the crappy economy. I'll bet she even launched the missles at our ship today. Darn her!

[gasperc]

38. "... want to know you're balanced period" ouch

good job Eleanor, use this on your talk show appearances!!!

and training an Iraqii army is just training the armies for Iraq's future civil war, oh that's gotta bite, they are in disarry but we've know that for 5 years

[eleny]

44. I think she did on McLaughlin last night

Maybe I'm not recalling correctly but I think she may have said it. :thumbsup:

[sendero]

46. Ms. Clift is great...

.... she appears on the Diane Rehm show's friday roundup fairly regularly. She is very good at shooting down the bullshit of Tony Blankley and his ilk.