The Democrat's Cindy Problem - part II

If I was a congressional Democrat, chances are that I would be hoping for Cindy Sheehan's anti-war campaign to flame out and blow away. After failing to talk with President Bush, she now announced that she expects every member of Congress to meet with her to answer these "simple" questions:

• President Bush has said that brave Americans like my son Casey have died for a "noble cause." What is that "noble cause "?
• How many more lives are we as a country willing to sacrifice in Iraq?
• How many are you personally willing to sacrifice?
• What are you specifically doing to bring our sons and daughters home from this needless war?

The catch here is that Cindy has already decided what answers are acceptable so even members of Congress who meet with here can end up on her Hall of Fame and Shame. In fact, a meeting can end up looking worse than refusing to meet. Dianne Feinstein had an aid meet with Cindy. This earned Feinstein an entry detailing how rude the aid was and why Cindy rejected Feinstein's responses. Compare this long entry with the one-sentence entries for DeLay and Hastert.

By most measures Dianne Feinstein is one of Congress's more liberal members and a frequent critic of President Bush. That is not enough for Cindy. She gives negative marks to anyone who does not endorse her position of "bring the troops home now".

Likely 2008 candidate, Hillary Clinton has scheduled a meeting with Cindy. It is hard to see how this can go well. Either Hillary will endorse Cindy's position and apologies for her pro-war votes or Cindy will denounce her. While this will help Hillary position herself as a moderate, the moderates are not paying attention right now. It is the anti-war, anti-Bush, Howard Dean faction that is watching and they already dislike Hillary. This could turn into white-hot hatred if Hillary is not careful.

Cindy has a big anti-war rally scheduled for this weekend. The best thing that could happen for Hillary would be if Hurricane Rita takes up all of the media's attention. Since Katrina, Cindy's road show has been starved for ink. The only mention they got in weeks was when the NYPD shut them down for not having a permit (there has been speculation that they didn't get a permit in order to get coverage). If Cindy is not able to generate any further coverage her supporters will move on elsewhere.

That still doesn't address a central problem that the Democrats have had since McGovern - no one trusts them to keep the country safe. Prior to McGovern there were a lot of hawks in the Democratic Party and the anti-war people were non-aligned. While it makes sense to pick up a big voting block like the anti-war crowd, they are not the majority. When Americans feel threatened they turn away from the party of peace and appeasement. The only two democrats elected since McGovern ran during times when Americans felt safe enough that economics were the main issue.

At some point the Democrats will have to eject their anti-war wing, especially the Cindy Sheehan fanatics. They are too unrealistic to ever be trusted with the country and they drag the party down with them.