[Mb-civic] Refusal to See Sheehan Is Second-Guessed - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Refusal to See Sheehan Is Second-Guessed
A Decision Characteristic of Bush Has the Potential to Be a 
Consequential Act

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 21, 2005; Page A05

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 20 -- It would have taken half an hour or less, and 
it might have lowered the temperature on a month's worth of searing 
publicity.

When Cindy Sheehan showed up outside President Bush's ranch on the 
fourth full day of his five-week working vacation to talk about a son 
who had been killed in Iraq, he declined to meet with her -- a decision 
that has been widely second-guessed, even by some Republicans. The way 
that choice was made, and the reasons for it, provide a vivid 
illustration of several hallmarks of Bush's style, including his 
insistence on protocol, his concern with precedent, his resistance to 
intrusions and his aversion to hand-wringing.

According to the accounts of several advisers, Bush and his aides 
concluded that it would be a mistake to yield to Sheehan's demand for a 
second meeting with Bush to discuss the death of her son, Casey, who was 
killed in Iraq at the age of 24 last year when his Army battalion was 
attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. The 
president had made it clear, going back at least to a California 
railroad swing during his 2000 campaign, that he does not care to meet 
with protesters or to reward them.

White House officials maintain that Sheehan may have discredited herself 
with statements about impeachment, her insistence on a withdrawal from 
Iraq, her mixing of her cause with that of the Palestinians, and her 
accusation that Bush "killed" her son. If Sheehan has lost credibility 
with the public, the "peace mom" might turn out to be only a summer 
sensation.

But if Sheehan winds up providing the catalyst for a muscular antiwar 
movement, Bush's handling of the matter will turn out to be not only 
characteristic but also consequential.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/20/AR2005082001046.html?nav=hcmodule
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