Bring on the Clowns

Karl Rove.

I can hardly type it he makes me so angry. Like Lee Atwater (who recanted some of his misdeeds on his death bed), Karl Rove has done more to create a sleeze of national politics and catering to the lowest common denominator of human beings than any other political operator in history.

And it works.

Arrianna Huffington has a interesting post of "off the record" comments made by that famous P.R. spinmeister, Rove. One of them particularly struck me:

On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally...

As some of you may (or may not) know, some of us "clowns" are traveling to Washington D.C. next weekend to participate in anti-war protest. The centerpiece of this gathering is to welcome Cindy Sheehan who intends to camp outside the White House in a similar fashion to her vigil outside Crawford Texas.

The expectation.....or hope....is that this protest will be very well attended sending a message to the Bush administration and to all politicans. And I think an unexpectedly large large turnout would get the national media attention necessary to galvanize what Sheehan began while in Crawford. Will it be well attended? I don't know...but I will let you know next weekend.

Anyway, to my point.

I peruse a number of papers, magazines and over 30 blogs daily spanning the political spectrum..... mostly the left portion of the spectrum. Maybe I'm missing something, but I've not seen any of the usual suspects (except one post by Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerrilla) blogging on this upcoming event. Why?

Is this a matter of Rove being right that "there is no real anti-war movement"? Do Americans really see Cindy Sheehan as a "clown"? Are those openly advocating and end of the war (in whatever form that might take...from immediate withdrawal to planned withdrawal) a "fringe"?

If you believe the polls, we're not. But I'm just wondering if American's have become so politically lazy that they just don't give too much of a damned. And I also wonder about the political backbones of those media/bloggers who proclaim a desire to end the war, but haven't seemed to lift a finger to help take an action like publicizing a major anti-war protest.

I have to agree with Rove contention about politicians. At this point in the election cycle, most Democrats see it as too politically risky to be a major player in an anti-war protest. I guess some just don't agree with a withdraw-the-troops position. More likely, many more see Iraq as a disaster with no real way out, lack the "intestinal fortitude" to show leadership, and will be running the 2004 election all over again.

I don't know. If you see surprised media coverage of a "major Washington protest" next weekend....or if it's a footnote story on page A25, only time will tell! Maybe if it's a big deal, there will be some backbones grown in some progressive candidates.