DUers did it to Cindy Sheehan.

[Bake]

The attitude that Sheehan is "beyond reproach" and that nobody else's opinion matters, OFTEN expressed here -- in virtually every thread -- is what pissed a lot of people off. Including me. No one could question ANYTHING she did, because she was a grieving mother. She was, in essence, a sacred cow. And sacred cows, frankly, need to be deflated, regardless of ideology, because there is no such thing as a sacred cow.

I admire MOST of what Sheehan did. Not all. I thought she was tactically wrong a couple of times, and said so. I got flamed for it. I never called her names or said anything personally nasty about her, so I don't need to, nor do I, apologize for what I said -- in a democracy, everybody's opinion matters. I thought she was wrong to disrupt the Dem presser last fall. I thought she was wrong to presume to speak for ALL of "We the People" in an open letter calling for impeachment. I thought she was wrong to meet with Chavez. She should have stuck to her core message. And the fact that she put herself out front as the "face of the anti-war movement" was fine, but she went beyond that, and I don't apologize for criticizing that.

So frankly, DUers prompted a lot of the criticism that she got from this place, by putting her on a "beyond reproach" pedestal. And I'm sorry if that offends anybody, but it's the truth and it needs to be said. As I said, I admire her stand on the war. I admire her actions on that issue. When she went beyond that issue, she stepped off the pedestal.

A lot of people now are conflating ANY criticism of Sheehan's methods or tactics, or issues for that matter, with criticism of her personally, and frankly, that's just wrong. If you're going to get out front, you've got to expect that. And when it gets too hot, you get out of the kitchen.

Bake