Cindy Sheehan update: Accuses Pelosi campaign of spying on her

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Things are getting downright weird for Cindy Sheehan, the world's most famous anti-Iraq war activist.

Sheehan, who is running an uphill fight for the San Francisco congressional seat held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is telling the world via her "Cindy for Congress '08" Web site that she is now the target of a dirty-tricks campaign.

According to Sheehan, the first sign was at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August when she returned to her hotel room just in time to catch a maintenance worker who supposedly was changing a light bulb. She thinks he was actually bugging her phone.

... Then last week, she filed a restraining order against a former volunteer who allegedly has been sending threatening e-mails. On her Web site, Sheehan says "we now know (he) was probably spying on us for the Pelosi camp." Pelosi's people brushed off the suggestion as absurd.

The tail lights on her campaign's RV were subsequently busted out. Not long after that, Sheehan writes, four young men walked into the campaign office on Mission Street, acted like they wanted to register to vote, then "grabbed one of our computers and beat an intern over the head when she tried to stop them."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/18/BALG13JJUV.DTL&tsp=1

---

Remember the DU rules when commenting: No advocating the defeat of a Democratic candidate.

[billyoc]

1. She's gone full-blown LaRouchie.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Whatever.

Though illegal acts need to be reported and pursued.

[madaboutharry]

3. Does she understand that these kinds of statements

will lead people to believe that she has a mental problem? Even the most sympathetic person would wonder what she is talking about. Why on earth would Nancy Pelosi spy on her?

[greenvpi]

6. Why?

Are you mental? She's called Pelosi on her rabid support of Bush by fighting the impeachment. Pelosi knows she is in the wrong and she knows her consituents know she is wrong so of course she is worried and most likely going to do stupid things.

[madaboutharry]

7. No, I am not mental.

I seriously doubt that Nancy Pelosi is spying on Cindy Sheehan.

[Dorian Gray]

22. I doubt it too

Sheehan isn't posing enough of a problem to Pelosi. Maybe if she were more a danger to her candidacy, I could see it. But she's not, and I think that a lot of this is to get her name in the press. Or sadly she is suffering delusions. She's been through a really rough period in her life. I feel badly for her (Sheehan), but I think that she's sadly mistaken about this.

[onenote]

35. If you think Pelosi is worried about Sheehan, you probably also think the moon is green cheese

[midnight]

4. This is horrible stuff to have to deal with. I wish you

a much smoother time ahead Cindy. Does anyone know how this race is going?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. Yeah, She's Losing Terribly.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. A picture speaks a thousans words:

[arcadian]

30. Is that your own photo?

Care to put that photo into context?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. The poor woman

She did some fine work, and made a great name for herself; and then, alas, she got caught up in her own celebrity and wanted more. There are people, I would guess, who are exploiting this poor woman.

I hope she finds some peace. She's had a hard time.

[EFerrari]

8. What an incredibly ignorant statement.

Cindy Sheehan is one of the most competent people I have ever met. She has a great sense of humor that she turns on herself often.

I hope you find peace from your delusions.

[Gemini Cat]

13. I agree

She is a great woman.
I am proud of her.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. My, my

Seems like having an opinion different from yours brings out the intolerance in you.

Well, that's all right. Some folks live narrower lives than others, and the slightest deviation from what they need to believe causes the kind of acute anxiety revealed in your post.

I'm sure you'll do fine.

[EFerrari]

24. LOL.

[Yukari Yakumo]

26. No, she's completely insane

If not that, she's something I called her out on about two years ago.

Cindy Sheehan is an Attention Whore.

Though I think we can safely add Drama Queen to the list of descriptors as well.

[Vidar]

27. I would put nothing past Pelosi.

[Yukari Yakumo]

28. Likewise, I would put nothing past Cindy in doing anything to get her name in print. {nt}

uguu

[Vidar]

49. No intelligent life here. On to the ignore list you go.

[Two Americas]

9. so...

Anyone suspecting wire-tapping, dirty tricks, politically inspired malicious vandalism ir violence - they must be mental or unstable or delusional, right? Nothing even remotely resembling anything like that could possibly be going on in America.

[stillcool]

10. Yeah really..it's not like the..

Speaker of the House has any power or anything she might not want to relinquish. And Nancy Pelosi has been such a valiant fighter for truth and justice, I'm sure she would never do anything under-handed to just preserve her position. She probably doesn't have the connections to do stuff like that even if she wanted to. I'll add this, just in case :sarcasm:

[Two Americas]

14. "wacko"

"Mentally unstable."

"She's lost it."

"Who could take her seriously?"

It is not as though the administration could like wiretap anyone or anything, and there are no right wingers who would ever engage in any sort of vandalism or violence. And Sheehan is not saying anything that anyone would ever object to, is she?

Haven't people been paying attention over the last 8 years? Nothing really strange or alarming has been happening, and anyone who thinks there is must be insane.

Sarcasm of course. Maybe we should say "sar-chasm" because of the gulf between reality and the perceptions of some here.

I haven't been paying enough attention to who is a "friend" like Pelosi, I presume, and who is the evil enemy. Hard to apply the double standard if you don't know who is who.

Is Sheehan running as a Democrat against Pelosi, or is she a minion of Satan? Evil minion, I would guess from the responses on this thread. Too late for the primaries, anyway, come to think of it so she must be independent, yes? Time flies when you are having fun.

[Dorian Gray]

23. She's not accusing right wingers of doing those things

She's accusing democrats of wire tapping and spying on her. And I don't believe it. Though I also don't believe she's necessarily being malicious in her accusations.

[Two Americas]

25. that is worse

You mean that seeing here as a wacko is reliant upon partisanship?

[Dorian Gray]

48. No

I don't see her as a whacko. I do see her as misguided, however. Do I believe that she believes all this is happening? Yes. I believe that her life events since her son's death are truly tragic. I believe she wants to make a difference. But I also believe that she's thrown herself into something so hard that she hasn't taken a moment to catch her breath and evaluate everything that is going on around her.

And I don't believe that Pelosi is spying on her. Not that Pelosi is so righteous and good. I just don't believe that Sheehan poses enough of a threat to Pelosi's campaign.

Seeing CS make these accusations makes me sad, to be honest. I don't hate her. I dislike that she's gunning after the democrats now. But my overwhelming emotion regarding her is sadness that her life had to turn out as tragically as it has. It's like reading Shakespeare.

[cobalt1999]

45. Anyone so irrelevant to the political race and claiming such probably is...

either unstable, desperately looking for attention, or so hoping they were relevant that they want such things to be true.

Nancy has as much reason to wire-tap Cindy as she does to spy on my dog. Neither one is a threat to her office and it would be a huge waste of time.

It's not only illogical, it's downright weird.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. What A Whacko She's Become. She's Totally Lost It. How Can Anyone Take Someone Like That Seriously?

Does she seriously think that people reading this stuff aren't gonna find her to be totally off her rocker?

I feel for her. She's just not mentally stable anymore.

Trust me when I say that Nancy couldn't give a rat's fat ass about Cindy's campaign.

[arcadian]

31. CindySheehan is not mentally ill. Interesting that you have such little regard for the mentally ill.

That you would use their illness to lambast people you do not like. You are a sick human being. Why should anybody trust you? You have zero credibility.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

33. I Do Believe Her To Be Mentally Ill. I Think The Phone Tapping And Now 'Spying' Is Proof Of It.

And once again, you seem to think you are in the position to speak for the entire DU community, when you speak for only a very small minority of them. I happen to have quite a bit of credibility, and would put my intellect, logic, reasoning and objectivity up against yours any day.

:hi:

[JonLP24]

44. Someone who supports

Single-payer health care, media reform, overturning all free trade agreements, repealing the Patriot Act, renewable energy, nationalizing oil and electricity, ending the War on Drugs, legalizing Cannabis, ensuring all talks in the Middle East are fair to all parties, ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Overseas commitment to cleaning up Superfund sites, ending deregulation, ending No Child Left Behind, and legalizing gay marriage is mentally unstable? To me it seems like she has more intelligence then most members of congress.

[Oak2004]

15. First off, welcome to politics, Cindy

Every campaign spies on the other campaign, though it goes by the polite euphimism of "opposition research".

At one point in my life I had in my possession several boxes worth of files on the then- opposition sitting in my closet, and I'd say a good third of what was there came from disgruntled volunteers for the other side and people playing both sides (though only a small percentage of that material was worth anything -- and the smarmy both-sides people were generally not worth talking to). Granted, at the time I was a Republican, but I don't imagine a lot of Democrats refuse information volunteered from the other side.

So Cindy, yes, you're being spied on. Though possibly not the way you think you are. It's unlikely you're being bugged, because doing that is way too risky: just ask Gordon Liddy. Though I can't say for certain that you are not being bugged.

Unless you have an actual bug in your hands and sufficient evidence that it was planted by your opponent that you could convict them in a court of law, don't make the accusation. Don't make the accusation even if you're 99% certain it's true, because anything less than 100% certainty will result in you being accused of being a kook.

In fact, even if you have incontrovertible physical proof of being bugged, you may not want to make the accusation. The object of running for office is to win, or at least to make some kind of a point, and that point is almost never "my opponent's people spy on the opposition". It's usually better to deal with the security breaches internally, and stay on message, than to go off on a tangent.

[EFerrari]

16. Because being called a kook is something to be avoided

even at the cost of the truth. Gee, where have I heard that one before?

[dorkulon]

17. I might melieve it if she was mounting a serious threat to Pelosi's seat.

But she's not. Nixon spied on Democrats, not minor perties. I Sheehan were polling at 40%, maybe Pelosi would resort to such tactics, but as it is, she can safely ignore her.

[EFerrari]

19. Yeah, just like we're all polling at 40% which is why NSA

is streaming everything.

[4lbs]

18. Miss Sheehan should check out the movie "The Rainmaker" starring Matt Damon.

In that movie based on John Grisham's novel of the same name, he plays the lead character, a young green-behind-the-ears civil attorney.

He and his partner suspect that their offices are being bugged by their adversaries, so they have it "swept" and the sweeper guy finds one and says there are probably several more. They don't destroy the bugs and report their adversaries to the judge or accuse them of such in the press.

Instead, what they do is use the bugs against their adversaries, by feeding them false information, but they think it's real. This ends up getting a potential juror that would have favored their adversaries kicked off the panel, and the adversaries are the ones that did it to themselves.

That's how you deal with "bugs". Use your knowledge of their presence to screw with whomever planted them, and work it in your favor.

[upi402]

46. smart play

and avoid getting smeared, as did Perot. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Not saying she's paranoid but she could have played the game of American power-grabbing smarter. Pelosi is in the business of power.

Look what happened to Scott Ritter. It's filthy dirty in there.

[formercia]

29. The only thing Pelosi is good for is sequestering Carbon. n/t

[Orangepeel]

32. if she is being spied upon (which I wouldn't bet money on)

it's much more likely to be because Homeland Security has her on some terrorist watch list than it is because Pelosi is worried about the campaign.

[defendandprotect]

34. Yeah . . . it would be so unusual for government officials to be spying on

citizens and/or political opponents --- !!!

Wake up, folks --!!!

[onenote]

36. so how long after the election until Sheehan (having resoundingly lost her race against Pelosi)

accuses President Obama of spying on her?

I give it a month, tops.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

37. This is really sad.....

I hope someone stages an intervention for this poor woman very soon. She needs serious help.

[Lance_Boyle]

38. I think she'll finally go away for good after she loses this election.

It'll be two or three years too late, but finally Ms. Sheehan will fade away, and those of us opposing the war in Iraq can continue to do so without being lumped in with her lunatic fringe. "Attention whore" is too nice a term for what Ms. Sheehan has made of herself.

[LWolf]

39. .

My comments withheld in accordance with DU rules.

[RollWithIt]

40. With all due respect to her, I think she's clearly a little off kilter....

At first I thought this was some sort of fundraising ploy, but she really is taking this kind of stuff way too far. I mean seriously, a vast Pelosi conspiracy?

[TexasObserver]

41. She probably IS being spied upon, but not by Pelosi.

Pick a name. George Bush. Dick Cheney. FBI. Army intelligence. The San Francisco Police Department. We live in a highly politicized era, where government agencies all think they've got a right to pick citizens they consider suspect and subject them to ridiculous surveillance.

I can't stand Cindy Sheehan any more, but she probably is being spied upon. But not by Pelosi.

[Cid_B]

43. Just a wee bit too much credit...

.. is being given here.

[TexasObserver]

47. What are you, a leprechaun?

Like the ones that appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about the pot of gold plates?

They're wee little people, those holy leprechauns.

[JonLP24]

42. I can see many here joined the ranks of Bill O'reilly

of marginalizing here. Especially the mentally ill comments make me sick, I bet they don't even know her and she might be right. Amazing, someone who wants to end the war in Iraq and wants Bush impeached is considered mentally ill. I think "impeachment off the table" is mentally ill. Unless you are Cindy Sheehan how can anyone be so sure she is right or wrong. I don't know but I'm guessing there is a reason she would mention this, whatever it could be it appears dirty tricks are going on whoever it might be from.

The restraining order part is true http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?&entry_id=31618