I guess people are determined to make more of my tweaking Sheehan post than I intended. So I suppose it would be responsible of me to be explicit in what I think, don’t think and what I intended.

Again: I don’t think Sheehan had any intent to rally Nazis, racists or the like.

No, I don’t think agreeing with Sheehan on the need to pull out of Iraq makes you akin to Nazis or racists in any meaningful or significant way.

Here’s what I do think. I think Sheehan has absolutely no sense of proportion or responsibility when she calls Bush a terrorist and a murderer or when she ascribes comic-book-villain motives to the administration. I think such rhetoric is appealing to a wide range of groups who practice similar rhetoric including, by the way, International Answer which no self-respecting liberal (as opposed to leftist) should have any association with. If I was being too glib by not spelling that out in my post, I apologize. But, I think Sheehan’s PR operation — including her water-carriers in the liberal press — should no be surprised that they’re attracting a broad Popular Front which includes a lot of disreputable and unpleasent elements. If you leave yourself no room, rhetorically speaking, between yourself and the crazies don’t be surprised if the crazies respond to your rhetoric.

Critics of the Minutemen, for example, have been eager to point out that such projects are popular among skinheads, Neo-Nazis and the like. Such guilt-by-association bothers the left not at all, even though the Minutemen have been working hard to weed out the nuts and goons rhetorically and practically.

Anyway, it was not my intent to argue ad Hitlerum about Sheehan. There’s enough to criticize her about without going there. If people took me to be saying otherwise, sorry for the miscommunication.