The poison of fame

In The American Thinker J. James Estrada has this to say:

The reaction to Ann Coulter’s Jersey Girls reference in her new book, Godless, The Church of Liberalism, proves the point she was making. You cannot be critical of, or in any way respond to the leftist message that comes from someone classified as victim.

Think of Christopher Reeve and Cindy Sheehan. These people were used by liberals/Democrats to get a message out that could not be challenged by the Right for fear of demonization. Reeve, because he was paralyzed, carried the water on adult stem cell research; Sheehan, because her soldier son died in the Iraqi war, carried the bucket with the “withdraw the troops” message.

Truth is, the Jersey Girls were termed “rock stars of grief,” back in 2004. Not by Ann Coulter, but by another member of the 9/11 families, who had encountered the women on more than one occasion and, of course, watched their actions closely. It was Debra Burlingame, whose brother was a pilot on one of the hijacked flights, who made this astute observation.

So, the reaction we’re now seeing to the chapter in Coulter’s book that deals with this victim-as-messenger phenomenon, once again, proves her point.

There are some people who taste a bit of fame and become so addicted to it that they will sell their souls for more. The Jersey Girls and Cindy Sheehan are such people. The deaths of their loved ones brought them to the attention of the nation. Their loss gave them a forum and armored them against criticism.

When the proverbial 15 minutes of fame that their situation gave them began to slip away they found it intolerable. Something had to be done to bring the spotlight back. For the Jersey Girls to keep the cameras pointed in their direction they needed some kind of red meat to throw to the mainstream media.

Nothing attracts MSM attention like someone who can credibly attack Republicans in general and President Bush in particular. By inserting themselves into a Presidential election on the side of the Democrat candidate they guaranteed themselves a place at center stage.

The case of Cindy Sheehan is similar. Before her son Casey joined the service Sheehan was already a moonbat. She is reported to have flown into a titanic rage when he told her he was going to Iraq. It is reported that she told him that she felt like running him down with her car rather than allow him to go.

When he was killed there probably was some legitimate grief. It was likely this authentically grieving Cindy that met with Mr. Bush and came away saying that she thought he was sincere and that she felt better.

At some point after that she was apparently recruited by the anti-war left. When she began to speak out against the war she got the same kind of media attention that the Jersey Girls got and the rest, as they say, was history.

Having mainlined the attention that the MSM will shower upon anyone who can launch a seemingly legitimate attack upon President Bush Ms. Sheehan never looked back. Her traitorous son who had had the gall to reject her values and her politics and join Chimpy’s army and go fight the neo-con Jews’ war for oil had gotten what he damned well had coming to him and he was now, by god, finally going to be of some use to her.

To anyone who isn’t a left-wing barking moonbat the Jersey Girls and Sheehan look unspeakably tawdry as they cover themselves in the blood of their dead family members and preen for the cameras. Someone has finally had the courage to say so.

Good for her.