Cindy Sheehan drives conservatives crazy

One-woman anti-war movement Cindy Sheehan has that certain Je ne sais quoi. I might not know what it is, exactly, but I know what it does. It drives Bush supporters crazy. When I write "crazy," I don't mean it in the rhetorical sense. She appears literally to be able to make them lose their sanity.

Consider the latest Sheehan attack from Rush Limbaugh, as noted by Media Matters.

LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.

Um... what? Excuse me?

Cindy Sheehan's story "is nothing more than forged documents?" What documents?

Cindy's story isn't real? What on earth does that mean? Did Casey Sheehan not die in Iraq? Is Cindy Sheehan not actually in Crawford, Texas trying to get Bush to explain the "noble cause" for which her son died. Have the mainstream media not, in fact, glommed onto Cindy's story?

While certainly an extreme example, this rant is of a piece with the rest of the ad hominem attacks being leveled at Mrs. Sheehan by Bush sycophants. Listening to GOP commentators calling her everything from a tool to a liar to a whore, one comes to understand why this woman struck such a raw nerve with her simple message: tell me why my son is dead. The reason the question inspires such fury among supporters of the Iraq war is that they don't have an answer.

The rationales for this war have fallen to the ground like the lies that they are. What Bush's supporters fear is that Mrs. Sheehan's simple, heartfelt query is the first one in history's case against George W. Bush. He will, in the end, be judged very harshly for his folly. Conservatives hoped that the questions would not be asked until after he left office. They were counting on having the time to shape and mold his legacy to their (and, certainly, his) liking. That plan is no longer operative. Bush is already on trial for waging an unnecessary, unjust and ungodly war. He has no defense. He is guilty.

In this context, Rush Limbaugh's frothing incoherence is perfectly understandable. There is no way to defend Bush against the condemnation of a mother who has lost her child to Bush's war of choice. There is no articulate case to be made in his support. All his supporters and enablers can do is howl in crazy, impotent rage.