Howard Dean: My meeting with Cindy Sheehan...great reading.

[madfloridian]

I needed to read something like this after all the bickering here. Cindy is a great person, and I am so glad to see this.

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/09/meeting_with_ci.php
Meeting with Cindy Sheehan
Posted by Howard Dean on September 27, 2005 at 06:06 PM

I met with Cindy Sheehan and three activist supporters here in my office at the DNC (two of whom were involved in the Presidential race) on Saturday after the rally. Some of you have met her, but for those who have not, I thought I would share my impressions.

She is a delightful person. She had not a drop of holier than thou zealotry. She is unpretentious and very clear. All this I expected, given the terrible sacrifice she has made, and her willingness to speak out.

What I was surprised at was her ability to be so comfortable in her own skin. After she became a phenomenon in Crawford, the Republican spin team realized she was a real threat. Cindy Sheehan, made a tremendous personal sacrifice. A sacrifice being made by too many American families who have had loved ones killed or maimed in this war.

Cindy has credibility the Administration does not have. Even the President tried to diminish her by saying that she did not believe in fighting terrorism. His minions, of course, did much worse, trying to make out that she was a media savvy manipulator -- and even spreading false rumors that she was anti-Semitic.

No one is untouched in the face of personal attack, but Cindy exudes an inner calm and a self-confidence which made it clear to me that she will not back down. I respect and support what she is doing in standing up and speaking out.

Whether you think the Iraq war is a good idea or not, all of us should support Cindy Sheehan. Perhaps the grossest disservice the Republican leadership has inflicted on our country is not the war, the huge deficits, or even the divisive appeals to the worst fears of voters. Rather it is the notion that it is unpatriotic to disagree with the most partisan President in our life time, and that dissent harms our country. Nothing could be farther from the truth -- we are a strong country because we have the right to dissent.

In fact it is the attempts of the Administration to fight dissent with personal attacks as they did during the Nixon era are that diminish our country in the long term.

Cindy Sheehan is honest in the face of a dishonest and corrupt Washington culture. She is plain spoken in an era of cynicism and propaganda, she in committed and idealistic in a time where our government has abandoned what is right for America in favor of what is right for the Republican party. We need more Cindy Sheehans.

[Carolab]

1. I think Howard and Cindy have much in common. n/t

[madfloridian]

2. I agree. Everyone has been wanting Dems to meet with her.

I would like for this to get attention. This paragraph shows we need to trust our leaders a little instead of yelling all the time. We really don't know how many have met with her.

"I met with Cindy Sheehan and three activist supporters here in my office at the DNC (two of whom were involved in the Presidential race) on Saturday after the rally. Some of you have met her, but for those who have not, I thought I would share my impressions."

Others were there as well.

[babylonsister]

4. Carolab, can you

relax a bit? I kid!
And I hope it will come to Dean and Cindy and the rest of the irresolute Dems coming together en masse to stop this war!
Bon soir!

[madfloridian]

6. It you mean her avatar....I get a huge kick out of it.

It is so funny. I laugh when I see it, and I need to laugh more.

[Carolab]

7. b'sister, the day I relax is the day * is gone.

Until then, RAISE HELL!

[madfloridian]

10. LOL

Keep on, Carolab

[Carolab]

14. Back at ya, MF!

[w13rd0]

3. Totally cool...

...glad to hear about the various reports.

[spuddonna]

5. Thank you, Mr. Dean! :)

I totally agree. The thing that scares me the most about this administration is its 'jack-booted'ness...

I also think all the Dem leaders should speak to her.

[madfloridian]

8. I was embarrassed over the way the Daily Show treated her.

This makes me feel better. I think Jon Stewart needs a lecture.

[spuddonna]

12. I missed TDS - what'd they do? n/t

[madfloridian]

13. He was not very kind to the rally or to her.

I felt bad. Hard to explain, but he sort of made fun of it. Someone may have the video up soon, or I think it goes up at the Comedy Central site later.

It was kind of cruel. It is not popular here to criticize him, everyone yells "It's f***ing comedy"....but this week it hit me wrong.

[spuddonna]

16. That's too bad... Sometimes I think his inner cynic blinds him...

It usually makes for good humor, but there was something else I saw last week that just went over like a lead balloon... and of course, now that I've run out of coffee and energy, I can't remember what the heck it was...

I'm sure his friends in NYC will probably give him hell for it. I think Cindy has captured a lot of people's hearts... Of course, there are no media 'stars' that are immune to being toppled. I won't be surprised if the left starts to bash her and say her '15 minutes is up'. People love heros, and I think they love ripping them to shreds even more.

[WildEyedLiberal]

20. Stewart made fun of Cindy, wtf?

I don't care if he ribs politicians, they can handle it, but Cindy's just a mom, an activist. That's not cool.

[anitar1]

21. Maybe she is just too plain and boring for him.

Not part of the "entertainment" crowd. and that includes politicians. I would imagine he has a very large ego.

[NoPasaran]

24. For crying out loud, it's a COMEDY show

Not a form of worship!

And if Jon was "kind of cruel" to the peace rally, he was absolutely brutal to the freeper rally the next day.

[madfloridian]

32. I beat you to it, noparasan.

Here is what I posted just above...beat you to it. I knew I would never be allowed to think what he did was a little overboard so I fussed at myself...now you don't have to do it.

My post:
"It was kind of cruel. It is not popular here to criticize him, everyone yells "It's f***ing comedy"....but this week it hit me wrong."

[NoPasaran]

38. I actually did read your entire post

I only posted what I did because I felt that your self-fussing-at should not be able to preemptively shut me down.

And I think it's actually pretty popular to criticize Jon Stewart whenever he does anything that slightly offends the humorless democratically-correct crowd, the same folks who act like he walks on water when he bashes Bush. In either case, it's a comedy show.

[NYCGirl]

30. I think Cindy Sheehan is big enough to take a joke, even if it's about her

Or at least, I hope she could.

[madfloridian]

33. I already lectured myself in my above post....so you don't have to.

I knew that saying anything about the show would get me criticism...so lookee I already did it to myself.

"It was kind of cruel. It is not popular here to criticize him, everyone yells "It's f***ing comedy"....but this week it hit me wrong."

And it was a cruel "joke."

[NYCGirl]

34. I'm not lecturing you. I'm sorry it came across that way. But if you put

yourself in the public eye, as Ms. Sheehan did, the best thing to do is (even if the kidding is somewhat cruel) smile nicely and deal graciously with it, especially if the person doing the kidding is not cruel by nature.

[madfloridian]

36. I reserve the right to criticize the Daily Show at times.

That was my point.

We go so overboard here about every issue.

[ntisuzi]

49. Cindy

Yes, Jon did Cindy a disservice last night. He was too flip with her. He needs a lecture for sure. Even is audience did not get where he was coming from.

[calimary]

9. Dean does it again!

Another excellent communique from him. I'm thrilled that he met with her!!! Shoulda done it sooner, but I'm glad he did.

[madfloridian]

11. I am very impressed at the way he wrote about it.

I really am. She has been treated pretty badly this week, so it makes me feel better.

[jaysunb]

15. It's called : Leadership

Something we've needed for awhile.

[tiedye]

45. Yeah, except he supports the damn war obviously

AFTER DOWNING STREET
Is Dean Drunk? Cindy Sheehan met with Howard Dean last Saturday. Then she showed up at a Progressive Democrats of America conference on Sunday and recounted what had happened at the meeting. Dean, she said, had showed her his plan to build the Democratic Party, which included a long platform of issues. That list did not acknowledge the existence of the war.... Does Dean have any idea what the most pressing concern of most Democrats is and which position they take on it? If so, is he experiencing any neurological problems? Is he just drunk?

Linked: 9/28/2005

[madfloridian]

48. Is that 5 times you have posted this paragraph?

Just wondering.

[tiedye]

50. Yes is called Propaganda

The word comes from the root propagate because it is the act of propagating ideas. Not inherently bad or good, propaganda makes sure a message gets across. I thought afterdowningstreet was a great web site to quote since the democratic leadership has a way of becoming republican on the war in spite of the revelations at afterdowningstreet.

[madfloridian]

52. Well, it is not hurting me, it is not hurting Dean......

But it is making Cindy and PDA look like they are going after Howard Dean. Not a good move...

Hey keep posting. It does not bother me.

[tiedye]

55. I dont want to hurt you two

I just think that taking a luke warm approach to condemning the war is an attempt to persuade democrats to tolerate it.

[madfloridian]

57. I don't take a luke-warm approach. Here are our protests...

We have done this since before the vote on the IWR. I take a sensible approach. I think they should leave the chairman alone and go after the ones who voted for it....Dean can NOT make this policy.
He can help put together a lot of the agenda, but this is sort of out of the realm of his ability.
We take active part in anti-war, but I refuse to try to hurt the party. I am beginning to think that is the goal of some groups. I will fight them on it.

[tiedye]

66. How do you add pictures?

I have some good ones from Salt Lake City. 2-3 thousand people in a pitifully conservative state. Rocky Anderson the democratic Mayor made a great speech about the lies of the admin. citing Jessica Lynch, WMDs and the claim that the war would be just a quickie. Unfortunately, the democratic Congresman Jim Matheson agrees that troops there until 2009 is just fine with him. And, the rest of our reps and congressmen cite FOX news for their information. Its unbelievable, literally.

ps. Do you have a people for peace and justice to help you organize bigger events? Our Greens and PPJ people have built our protests so that they are bigger than we dreamed they would be.

[Jim Sagle]

58. Of COURSE he's against the war. WTF RU babbling about?

[tiedye]

67. I am citing a statement from Afterdowningstreet

Its all over, AIPAC told democrats not to participate.

[Jim Sagle]

76. We're talking about Dean, not AIPAC.

Dean was vocally opposed to the war from the start and everybody goddamn well knows it.

[tiedye]

72. evidence please

If you have any evidence he is publicly stating he is against the Iraq war, please post it and I will be more than happy to propagate the statements.

[understandinglife]

17. I am very impressed and I sent him the following email:

Good evening Dr Dean,

I request that you read the following as soon as possible. I wrote it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

If you would like to review a draft of the pamphlet, please send me an email address. I will send you the draft and I will not share your email address with anyone.

Peace

I hope I can encourage Dr Dean to approach Congressman Conyers and encourage him to take the lead.

Our Nation and humanity depend on Dr Dean and all of us being able to convince Congressman Conyers to do so.


Peace.

[madfloridian]

18. That's great. Did you post in the blog comments with his post?

He and the staff read those.

[understandinglife]

19. I do not have an account with his blog. I have sent him email, but ...

... I would be very grateful if you would post the DU thread at his blog and indicate I've sent it to him by email via the DNC webmail form (that way he also knows he has my email address).

Thank you for any help you can provide to get this request to him.


Peace.

[calimary]

35. Good! I think we all should encourage Dr. Dean - he's doing so much

that proves he actually does get it, and he deserves lots of attaboys for that. ESPECIALLY since he's probably up against one of the worst denial-fests in the world in the DLC mentality that's still in the way. He's got a LOT of dreck to cut through. ANY encouragement will help him.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stockholm]

23. The US needs more Sheehans and Deans n/t

[ladylibertee]

25. Howard Dean is such a sweet man.Seriously,He does these things

with no motive or agenda.I really believe this because whenever I hear about stuff he does or says,I never think "We'll he is the Democratic Chairman" I literally think " What a cool dude" then I remember, "Oh yeah, he's our parties leader." I think that speaks a lot about the man.

[tiedye]

42. maybe an anti-war agenda would help him

AFTER DOWNING STREET
Is Dean Drunk? Cindy Sheehan met with Howard Dean last Saturday. Then she showed up at a Progressive Democrats of America conference on Sunday and recounted what had happened at the meeting. Dean, she said, had showed her his plan to build the Democratic Party, which included a long platform of issues. That list did not acknowledge the existence of the war.... Does Dean have any idea what the most pressing concern of most Democrats is and which position they take on it? If so, is he experiencing any neurological problems? Is he just drunk?

Linked: 9/28/2005

[madfloridian]

46. Is Kucinich with the Green Party now? He was not at the rally..

I hear he was at a Green event instead.

[tiedye]

51. No, he's still a democrat

unfortunately

[madfloridian]

53. Why wasn't he at the protest then?

I thought all our Democrats had to be there or be square...or was that just everyone else but him.

[tiedye]

54. I guess because he's a democrat

[madfloridian]

65. Why was Kucinich at a Green rally if he is still a Democrat?

Hard to get an answer here.

[tiedye]

68. He is always trying to woo Greens to the Progressive Dems

He said, "" Too bad he is not given any power in the party. Dems keep choosing conservative democrats like Kerry and Hillary and Obama (all for the war) to be their mouthpiece.

[tiedye]

70. last comment missed the Kucinich quote:

Kucinich said, ""

But, maybe now that finance reform is having an effect, he will have nothing to gain by being democrat.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,615153895,00.html

[tiedye]

71. Greens here love Kucinich

but they know he has no voice in the democratic party.

[ladylibertee]

64. Welcome to DU ...with reservations

[bklyncowgirl]

26. I give him a great deal of credit for this.

Alot of Democrats seem to be toeing the waters, afraid to get too close to the anti-war movement in general and Cindy Sheehan in particular.

The party is still divided over even whether the war was a good idea or not. Dean's job is to get Democrats elected regardless of their position on the war. This will hopefully give some moral support to Democrats who were teetering on the brink of coming out against the war.

Good work, Doctor.

[tiedye]

43. Oh Gush

AFTER DOWNING STREET
Is Dean Drunk? Cindy Sheehan met with Howard Dean last Saturday. Then she showed up at a Progressive Democrats of America conference on Sunday and recounted what had happened at the meeting. Dean, she said, had showed her his plan to build the Democratic Party, which included a long platform of issues. That list did not acknowledge the existence of the war.... Does Dean have any idea what the most pressing concern of most Democrats is and which position they take on it? If so, is he experiencing any neurological problems? Is he just drunk?

Linked: 9/28/2005

[Cha]

60. "Oh gush", yourself..

what are you..a spammer?

[Don1]

27. I liked the statement.

I liked the good things he said about protesting and Cindy. I liked what he said about the "corrupt Washington culture." However, he evaded the issue of policy on Iraq, which is the crux of the protesting. Is there a statement on Iraq he has made during/after the protest?

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

28. Kick n/t

[confludemocrat]

29. Doesn't say he agrees with her that's what was needed. Disappointing.

Veiled endorsement? Not good enough.

[savemefromdumbya]

31. Bush can't win over Cindy

even if he tries to kill her off she will become a martyr!

[zann725]

37. Eloquently said...and on-the-mark. She IS amazing.

The courage to get arrested the other day demonstrates her growing conviction. Particularly considering she was an everyday mom just months ago, and like many every-day-Americans this past weekend who went to their first anti-war Rally...the "growth" is inspiring to watch.

I even heard Ed Schulz say on his show yesterday that he went to HIS first protest march last weekend, and was amazed to see everyday families there. For those new to the scene...it's been like that for a very long time. The MSM just never let ya know what an uplifting and every-man experience freedom of the speech truly is.

[the old gringo]

39. Dean is full of crap

Howard pats himself on the back for meeting with Cindy Sheehan. After the protest rally was over. When it was too late for it to do any good or help raise public awareness of the event. In his statement, he calls on everyone to support Sheehan, whether you support the war or not. Huh?

What a tool. I used to respect this guy, but his reluctance to take a stand against the war recently has diminished him in my eyes. Dean writes "We need more Cindy Sheehans." He could start by looking in the fucking mirror. Put your money where your mouth is, Howard.

[GoreDean2008]

47. Dean Is Doing What He Has Been Doing All Along

Except that he is rallying the troops like he used to during the primaries. His current job is to build grassroot progressives quietly in order to defeat the Republicans and DLC Democrats. Think how many times Dean has been under the media spotlight because of his comments. That may be little counterproductive for what Dean is trying to accomplish. So don't expect Dean to be more visible and flamboyant. Dean is doing his job and we will see his fruits in November 2006.

[tiedye]

56. except he's building conservative democrats

instead

[NYCGirl]

69. I disagree. He's building WINNING Democrats.

Until we win back Congress, we can't do anything.

[tiedye]

73. winning on a conservative war platform is no victory

Didn't we learn this lesson from Kerry? And what next Hilary? Another pro-war advocate.

The democratic constituency must let party leaders know that the Iraq war is unacceptable and they will not get the democratic base vote if they do not outwardly condemn the war. What are they afraid of?????

Its time for the democratic voters to make some demands on their leaders as opposed to just voting for the donkey, no matter what they say.

Demands must be made on these people because Kerry lost doing the same thing as Dean.

Todays Ipso polls reveal that strong opposition to the war outweighs strong support 2 to 1. It is time to listen to the people and build a platform that speaks to us.

Kerry failed to capitalize on the strong anti-war sentiment, instead courted conservatives. Program for International Policy Attitudes has the public sentiment documented (PIPA.org) and yet Kerry and all other dem leadership ignore these telling polls.

That is why they are not winning.

[NYCGirl]

75. I'm not talking about Hillary or Kerry or 2008. We have to win seats

in 2006 or else we can't do anything else. That's Dean's job. He's thinking about building the party LOCALLY.

[bemildred]

40. Attaboy Howard, well done. Exactly right. nt

[tiedye]

41. Is Dean a Whimp on the war?

AFTER DOWNING STREET
Is Dean Drunk? Cindy Sheehan met with Howard Dean last Saturday. Then she showed up at a Progressive Democrats of America conference on Sunday and recounted what had happened at the meeting. Dean, she said, had showed her his plan to build the Democratic Party, which included a long platform of issues. That list did not acknowledge the existence of the war.... Does Dean have any idea what the most pressing concern of most Democrats is and which position they take on it? If so, is he experiencing any neurological problems? Is he just drunk?

Linked: 9/28/2005

[madfloridian]

44. Yes, that guy is a director of PDA.

Of course we only have Cindy's word on the connotation of the words, the real words spoken.

I don't like this, and PDA is making a mistake pursuing this path right now.

Maybe one of the other people present at the meeting will speak up. I know Dean will not do it, as he wrote the nice article about her.

[savemefromdumbya]

59. do we see a new wind blowing?

this move is very curious - are we seeing a 'wee turn' in policy?

[Cha]

61. Yeah, what's hillary

up to on "policy" now..still advocating what a "noble cause" the war is?

[savemefromdumbya]

62. war

I guess it seemed right at the time for Dems to support the war - but now lots of things are surfacing.......

[Cha]

63. hillary just told Cindy

Sheehan that she thought "fighting for our freedoms was noble" so that doesn't sound like she's learned anything.

[tiedye]

74. Jesus, Hilary!

"fighting for our freedoms"??? You mean the patriot act?? You mean fighting for the freedom to kill innocent Iraqis, the freedom to be lied to? The freedom for free speech "zones" The freedom for a conservative right wing corporate media?

Fighting for our freedoms, please give me some evidence that we are free because of our attack on Irag.

That is pure republican propaganda.