Unexpected Holiday

This Cindy Sheehan thing is turning into a fiasco for the Bush Administration. It shows how desperate this country is for an antiwar movement that 5 grieving mothers can set the GOP off their game so utterly. Yesterday the President had to address Sheehan while ignoring many of her fundamental points:

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush, acknowledging that some families of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq want to bring the troops home now, believes that would be a big mistake.

"Pulling the troops out would send a terrible signal to the enemy," he said.

Reports that the Pentagon may increase or decrease troop levels in Iraq next year were simply "speculation and rumors," he said between meetings Thursday with his military and foreign affairs advisers.

So now he's forced to contradict his own generals (remember "my generals will tell me if they need people, and we'll give it to them"?) because that's the best way to frame opposition to Sheehan. Troop pullout is only one of her goals, the others being a full explanation of the "noble cause" for which her son died, an accounting of prewar intelligence, and a consideration of why the President doesn't ask his own daughters to serve. But the GOP can't touch those hot subjects. Plus, it looks just awful for the President to be hanging out at the ranch without letting this lady in for a few words. And the White House has no idea how to fix the situation.

Actually, the President is doing a lot more than just "hanging out":

On Friday, Bush was to turn from policy to politics. He was scheduled to visit a neighbor's ranch for a barbecue where he was to help raise a couple million dollars for the GOP just by showing up.

The fundraiser for some 230 people at Stan and Kathy Hickey's Broken Spoke Ranch, a 478-acre spread next to Bush's ranch, was expected to raise at least $2 million for the Republican National Committee, according to RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.

The Bill O'Reillys and Michelle Malkins of the world can smear Cindy Sheehan's name all they want, but the public isn't buying it. The juxtaposition of a grieving mother sitting in the road and a fatcat having a fundraiser barbecue on a buddy's ranch is too stark.

The Downing Street Memo, the Rove allegations, and the other intelligence failures that have come to light in the past year have all led to this moment. A real antiwar movement in this country, populated by sensible people from all walks of life, just like during Vietnam, is about to explode.