The NYT‘s Maureen Dowd riffs on W. with Mick Jagger’s mocking scowl and the Rolling Stones’ upcoming single, “Sweet Neo Con.”
Earlier today, Matt Drudge — along with downright ugly photos of W. and Condi — gave us a sneak peek at the lyrics to “Sweet Neo Con”:
You call yourself a patriot.
Well, I think you are full of sh*t!…
How come you’re so wrong, my sweet neo-con.”
Dowd’s litany of poxes on Bush’s house begins:
W. can’t get no satisfaction on Iraq.
There’s an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed. …
Way to go, Cindy Sheehan. I was astonished to see you respectfully interviewed tonight by Greta Van Susteren on FOX. But now you’ve gotten top billing — and five whole paragraphs — in Maureen Dowd’s column, you’ve definitely arrived. What’s next? Charlie Rose? I hope not. I hope you’re on Oprah and Montel and all the shows that average Americans watch. They need to see your fight, your grief, your plain sincerity, and homespun gumption. And, Maureen Dowd, welcome back.
Update [2005-8-10 0:46:9 by susanhu]: Military families to join Crawford protest at Raw Story
BELOW, the next four paragraphs by Dowd on Cindy Sheehan:
Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out in the dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all American troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an ambush in Sadr City last year.
The president met with her family two months after Casey’s death. Capturing W.’s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as “Mom” throughout the meeting, and given her the sense that he did not know who her son was.
The Bush team tried to discredit “Mom” by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. [See Drudge Quotes Cindy Sheehan Out of Context.] If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.
It’s amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn’t. …
Dowd brings up Paul Hackett’s great fight in the OH-2 special election last week. She concludes with this:
Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.
But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.
As Dowd says, “It’s hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation.”
