They hate motherhood, dogs and old people

PGA championship is on tv today. Thinking about golf, we watched "Tin Cup" last weekend. Not a great movie, but fun (also re-watched Bull Durham--same director and much better movie). The antagonist in the film is a likeable pro-golfer who has the girl at the beginning. Our hero warns her that in reality, when the cameras are off, the antagonist hates children, old people, and dogs. And of course, it is true.

Republicans have tried to capitalize on their moral and traditional side. They claim to support "family values" like motherhood and patriotic service. But I think we are seeing the truth of the matter. Cindy Sheehan's one-woman protest against the President's foreign policy has brought out the ugly in the right. As Arianna puts it:

How much longer can the Bushies get away with mauling the very values they profess to stand for before their supporters start getting wise to the fact that the only value they really value is power?

Think about it, they've shown absolutely no compunction about turning the sleaze machine on an undercover agent who'd spent her career working to protect us from weapons of mass destruction, a Silver Star/Purple Heart veteran who volunteered to fight in a war the administration chickenhawks gamed the system to avoid, and now the mother of a dead soldier.

That's right. Cindy is not, according to the right, even entitled to her grief, or if she is, it is to be channeled into some flag-waving parade. Of course, I think she represents America at its best. I don't agree with her request to withdraw from Iraq, but she is protesting peacefully and exercising her right to dissent. That is America, last I checked. Not the O'Reilly's and Limbaugh's of the country.

But more to the point, for all their bluster about morality and tradition, they don't even respect the very foundation of our culture. They don't respect dissent. They don't actually care about the fighting men and women--and have undermined their actions countless times and tried to cut benefits for those who serve.

And here is a mother--one who has a right to be angry. And the best the right can do is call her a traitor? This is unseemly, even for them. Karl Rove, according to them, is a hero, while Cindy Sheehan is a traitor. Shame on them.

And shame on you if you continue to support these people based on what they say they stand for rather than what they do.