After speculating whether this was 1968 all over again for the Democrats, I think we now have exhibit A. Cindy Sheehan has formally announced as an independent gunning for Nancy Pelosi's seat.

From AP:

Citing her son as inspiration, a tearful Cindy Sheehan announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House of Representatives.

...Last month, she announced her intention to run against Pelosi if the speaker didn't move to impeach Bush by July 23. On Thursday, she said Pelosi had "protected the status quo" of the corporate elite and had lost touch with people in her district, most of whom, she said, want American troops out of Iraq.

...Sheehan admitted she has no funds for a campaign, but planned to immediately get started raising money. Without giving further specifics, Sheehan said she wouldn't accept money from corporations and would run on a platform of universal health care. Sheehan said she also wants to make college affordable and improve ethics in the legislative and executive branches.

So maybe now the Democrats will actually believe the conservatives and others who suggested that Cindy Sheehan is an unhinged woman trading on the goodwill of her dead son. Just who was it that fed the media reputation, who booked her on all those talk shows? Who funded her camp in Crawford? Talk about pigeons coming home to roost.

Cindy Sheehan is bitter. It's been a classic example of what the media will do with people who they need for a purpose and then kick to the curb when they're finished. They anointed her the leader of the "peace movement" and followed her every move. From Crawford, Texas to Washington D.C., Sheehan was exulted and enabled. She actually seemed to believe the press about herself. The ultimate hard-left blog Daily Kos allowed her to post her thoughts at will.

But then a funny thing happened. They tired of her antics and you started seeing less flattering stories printed. The public as well grew weary of her and wished she would just go away and grieve. We felt for her, but she took it to an extreme. Kissing Hugo Chavez was the last straw for a great many people.

Eventually, she "retired" from the movement for a short time and did what we had hoped. But instead of getting her life together, it seems that she seethed and turned on the Democrats who once lauded her when she was "Mother Sheehan" dogging the president.

Cindy Sheehan is another gift that keeps on giving, as the Democrats are finding out. Although she has no chance of beating Nancy Pelosi, she promises to be very entertaining all the way up to election day. Her latest screed was published yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle. In it, along with the usual anti-Bush stuff, she claims that the response to her pending congressional campaign against Pelosi has been 3-to-1 positive, and that she has discovered the true nature of the Democratic Party:

I was a lifelong Democrat only because the choices were limited. The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th century, except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal income taxes, not one but two World Wars, Japanese concentration camps, and not one but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan -- all brought to us via the Democrats. Don't tell me the Democrats are our "saviors" because I am not buying it -- especially after they bought more caskets and more devastating pain when they financed and co-facilitated more of President Bush's abysmal occupation.

Oh, and she calls Hillary Clinton a "Republican":

I was frightened out of ever voting for a third party, or an independent candidate, but voting out of fear is one of the things that bestowed us with the Bush crime mob and may give us the Republican, if not in party affiliation, Hillary Clinton.

Hey, third parties also gave us Bill Clinton, but who's counting. This train wreck is going to be so much fun to watch. I happen to think that Sheehan is a very sick woman, and one to be pitied -- however, she is so self-righteous that she just begs to be mocked. But hey Democrats, it was you (via Fenton Communications and others) who created her and used her for your 'evil' purposes. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist whose son was killed in Iraq, has threatened to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if Pelosi doesn't introduce articles of impeachment against George W. Bush in the next two weeks:

"I think all politicians should be held accountable," Sheehan told The Associated Press on Sunday. "Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership. We hired them to bring an end to the war."

With all due sympathy for Ms. Sheehan, she certainly does speak like a politician. The truth is that while dissatisfaction with the Iraq war played a big part in the shift in Congressional power, it is a bit of a stretch to say that many of us expected a cause and effect outcome on that issue alone. The national election was not similar to a California ballot initiative in which the populace gave the war a thumbs up or a thumbs down (though given the chance, it would have done the latter).

Moreover, the threat of running should Pelosi fail to start up the impeachment engine, is another self-righteous piece of grandstanding. Doesn't Sheehan realize that even if she were elected, she would be just one voice in many, unable to realize change without building consensus and reaching across the aisle? If you think Nancy Pelosi is a polarizing figure in politics, just try Congresswoman Cindy Sheehan on for size.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a KIA soldier, is threatening the House speaker with a primary opponent unless Nancy Pelosi files articles of impeachment.

Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch.

"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the congresswoman has said repeatedly that her focus is on ending the war in Iraq.

"She believes that the best way to support our troops in Iraq is to bring them home safely and soon," Daly said in an e-mail to the AP. "July will be a month of action in Congress to end the war, including a vote to redeploy our troops by next spring."

I must admit, I am loving this a little too much. Of course Pelosi isn't going to file articles of impeachment. She may be a liberal Democrat, but she isn't stupid enough to go for an overreach of those proportions. But Sheehan apparently is that stupid, or doesn't care about overreach, and probably has more than a dozen supporters cheering her on.

The part I'm liking is that Democrats will either have to take her seriously, or dismiss Sheehan as a publicity-seeking self-interested rabble rouser. Which of course, is exactly what she has been all along. The Democrats liked her when she camped out in Crawford. Not so much, now.

Former Democrat icon Cindy Sheehan has retired from the anti-Bush movement, silenced not by the Right but by her disillusionment with her co-travelers on the Left. Her farewell address is here on DailyKos. We are left with relying on the news media in England, as opposed to our own country, to publish the first report on the milestone here.

Sheehan always struck me as a sad case. She lost her son in a war, and had problems dealing with it, as any parent would. She found that she needed someone to blame -- and why blame the people who actually killed her son (forces loyal to Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al'Sadr) when Bush was available?

The "Peace Mom" found much support from Left, financially and otherwise, when she chose to portray herself as a victim of the Bush administration. She was so successful as that victim that she then co-opted her son's memory and history to change him into a victim of President Bush as well. Sheehan's stories about her son, in particular about her son's coerced re-enlistment and lonely useless death, were proven to be lies. To the contrary, her son Casey Sheehan was proud and happy to be a soldier, loved his comrades, reenlisted of his own volition fully knowing the risks involved, and died a hero by volunteering to go back into battle to rescue other troops. You don't find soldiers any braver or more courageous than that.

What we were watching with the "Peace Mom" was a very public mental breakdown of a woman wracked with grief, used by the Democrats and the media to get at Bush. In the end, she not only lost her son but her marriage and her other children as well, who were disgusted at her behavior and many, many comments. The Democrats and the Left used an obviously sick woman for as long as they could, until eventually she turned into an embarrassment even to them. Then they discarded her like used toilet paper.

In a Memorial Day farewell letter, Cindy Sheehan has given up the fight to stop the Iraq War. The Bush administration knows how to fight and they portrayed anybody who opposed this was as unpatriotic. It didn't matter that Cindy Sheehan had lost her son in that very war. I am sure she knew it wouldn't be easy but she never realized how tough it would be. Crusades can ruin ones life. When you are totally devoted to a cause, all your other relationships suffer.

The following words are an extract from that letter. The frustration oozes out.

"The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."

Cindy Sheehan did not become rich during her protests. In fact, if the letter is accurate, her life is in ruins. She fought both the Democrats and the Republicans by criticizing their failures to end this war. On this Memorial Day, we should not only remember those who have died in the wars but we should remember the loved ones that were left behind.

Cindy Sheehan has long ago exhausted any pity Americans may have had for her. She's been abandoned by the Democrats she thought were her supporters and she's now involved in a money scandal:

The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating.

Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest are unaccounted for.

What happened to the money? The fact that they repealed their charter says to me that there was some funny business going on with respect to donations. Sheehan traded the dignity of her son's service for the life of a peace icon. In doing so, she alienated those who may have supported her. She used her son's memory to receive donations that are now mysteriously missing. She also met with America's enemies and disparaged her country all in the name of "peace."

I may have once felt sympathy for Cindy Sheehan; that's long past. There are many mothers who've lost sons and daughters and they have my respect. If they think the wars that we are fighting are wrong, that is their prerogative. They have not gone out and used their grief to build a charity that is run like a business.

When I first came upon the title of this article, Allegations Plague Peace Group That Sponsors War Protests, I first though that it was referring to International ANSWER. But although that group seems to be a prime candidate, the article is actually referring to the Cindy Sheehan-affiliated group, the Crawford Peace House in Crawford, Texas. Sheehan is listed as a board member for the group. Apparently, mucho dinero has gone into the groups coffers - and there is poco dinero left with no way to account for it.

The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating.

Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest are unaccounted for.

"There are people who have said, `Don't say anything because you'll hurt the peace movement,"' Oliver said. "But if the peace movement isn't pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards."

And what would Easter be without a few inspiring words from Cindy Sheehan:

Sheehan, whose soldier son Casey was killed in Iraq, planned to lead dozens of protesters to a security checkpoint near Bush's Texas ranch and read out names of US dead in Iraq using a bullhorn.

"Our message is: Today is Good Friday, when Jesus Christ was killed by the Roman Empire. He rose again on Sunday, came back to life. But our loved ones won't be coming home" from Iraq, she told reporters.

Yesterday in Washington D.C, the anti-war minority, supported by international financier George Soros-led groups, marched on the Pentagon. This, of course, is nothing new, they've been marching for the last four years.

What was different this time is that they were met by a large contingent of patriots and veterans who have said "enough." Enough of anti-Americanism (yes, hanging the American flag upside down is anti-American), enough of the defeatism that destroys troop morale, enough of divisiveness that has become the left's hallmark. This group is known as A Gathering of Eagles and a more honorable group I can't conceive of.

All the barking moonbats were there; "Hanoi" Jane Fonda, Cindy Sheehan and every other dissenter wannabe they could bus in from the local drum circle (if you think I'm joking, look at the Post slideshow). They screamed to impeach the president and chanted that Dick Cheney is (fill in the blank). They wanted the world to see... what? That they can attempt to stop a war from inside the nation? That they are free to do so?

What they are showing is that if other nations wish us harm, they will assist them by roiling the waters at home and decreasing support in our troops' efforts. They have as their sole goal, elimination of America as a military force in the world. They believe that America is not the beacon of freedom we believe ourselves to be, but an imperialist nation bent on conquest. They believe that America is bad and thus must be changed to a nation that is more akin to France or Germany. They believe that America is just as bad as any nation we attack, regardless of said nation's past atrocities. They believe in the elimination of America as we have been for 200+ years.

In the classic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelly wrote of a scientist who created a monster. That monster eventually turned on his creator. An updated version of that story is occurring as we speak.

When Cindy Sheehan first came to our attention, she was a mother grieving over the loss of her son Casey in Iraq. She was anti-war, she claimed, so that other mothers would not feel the pain she was. She was everywhere and on TV nearly every night. The Democrats courted her and she fell for them in a big way. She became obsessed with publicity.

Then something funny happened, Ms. Sheehan showed what her true thoughts were. She was seen kissing and hugging Hugo Chavez, she camped out in Crawford, TX and she became a near parody of what most thought she was. She got away with it all thanks to her enablers on the left and her "absolute moral authority." Other military moms were not so quick to follow her lead.That was the point at which Democrats realized they had an election approaching and Sheehan was no longer an asset politically, she became a liability.