We thought the blowback against Cindy Sheehan hit rock bottom when Bill O'Reilly suggested that her vigil in Crawford, Texas, "borders on treasonous" and Michelle Malkin offered up the view that Sheehan's dead son wouldn't approve. Then we thought it couldn't get any worse when the president of the United States said he couldn't take the time to meet with Sheehan because his exercise schedule was more important.
We were wrong. On Monday night, a driver in a pickup truck rammed through rows of white crosses Sheehan and her supporters have placed across a road near the president's Crawford ranch. So much for supporting the troops: The crosses bore the names of soldiers who were killed in the war in Iraq.
Monday night's incident was just the latest sign that things are getting ugly in Crawford. Over the weekend, one of Bush's neighbors fired a shotgun in the air as Sheehan and her supporters began a prayer service. He said he was getting ready to hunt doves. And according to a Bloomberg News report, some of Bush's Crawford neighbors plan to go to court in Waco today to seek an order prohibiting anyone from parking or stopping on roads near Bush's ranch.
The neighbors' efforts could run into a roadblock stronger than the white crosses that once stretched across the roadway. It's called the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment to which protects the right of the people "to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Update: Although Bloomberg said that Bush's neighbors intended to go to court to stop Sheehan's protests, the neighbors actually filed a petition today with local county commissioners, the Associated Press is reporting. In their petition, they seek to have an existing no-parking zone around Bush's ranch extended so far that any protestors would be forced to relocate to the town of Crawford, about seven miles away. The commission said it would hold a public hearing on the request in about four weeks -- in other words, after the president's five-week vacation has ended.
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