The Sheehan Double-Standard

Jonah Goldberg nails it:

Without getting into all the sub-arguments about Cindy Sheehan, I think she's a great example of the opportunism of partisanship. There's simply no way that establishment liberals would take the same tone if Bill Clinton were president under remotely similar circumstances. It is flatly inconceivable. Sure some of the Huffington Post types might make similar bleatings, but Juan Williams? No way. A lot of smart (and a lot of dumb) people who are striking a self-righteous pose when it comes to Sheehan, would undoubtedly be singing a different tune if a mother, adopted by ideological enemies of the president, were camping out outside of his vacation home (in Martha's Vineyard or the like) under similar circumstances. Her previously friendly statements about the president would be used to damn her and that would be the end of it. The nightly news wouldn't make her a hero and the lefty bloggers would write her off as a "Clinton hater," a Freeper, a Buchananite or some other example of the "paranoid style" in American politics.

Meanwhile, I am sure it's true that a lot of folks on the right would be taking up a "rightwing" Cindy Sheehan's cause. But the key difference is that the Washington Post, New York Times and nightly news shows wouldn't be volunteering as press agents.

Even giving Sheehan every benefit of the doubt, is it so impossible to understand that caving-in to publicity stunts of this sort is something presidents, Republican and Democrat, are naturally reluctant to do?

A reader wrote in and told Jonah this, but Jonah doesn't remember the incident. I do and the writer's right about how it played in the MSM:

Jonah: Do you recall Randy Shugard? Randy was the Army Ranger who, along with another Ranger, went into a crash site in Mogadishu to set up a protective perimeter around a crashed Blackhawk helicopter. For this action, Sgt. (I think) Shugard and his Ranger compatriot were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (posthumously). At the Medal ceremony, Randy Shugard's father told then President Clinton that he (Clinton) was "unfit to be Commander-in-Chief" when President Clinton attempted to speak to Mr. Shugard.

I remember seeing one mention of the incident in the press at the time, alnog with a single picture of Mr. Shugard with a stern look on his face and President Clinton with what appeared to be surprise (if not shock). Otherwise, the MSM did not give any coverage to this incident. What do you think the press coverage would have been if President Bush had been the recipient of that type of parental outrage? I think we have a good idea from the coverage of Cindy Sheehan.

Never forget that the Left cheers the death of our soldiers because their coffins become convenient soapboxes for them to attack Dubya from. Stupid, lying women like Cindy Sheehan are going to multiply because as more details about Able Danger come out and the Truth gets closer to burning Clinton, Gorelick and the Dems into cinders, the more they'll be trotting out these false griefers.