When I first heard of Cindy Sheehan and her lonely and quixotic attempts to stake out President Bush until she got some real answers about what her son was sacrificed for, I was filled with admiration for her. But not any more.

Now that she has ex-Howard Dean spinmeister & DNC operative Joe Trippi doing media interviews on her behalf, writing her press releases, and coaching her on camera angles, and such...I have to conclude that Sheehan is either a dupe or a fool. Whichever one (or both), matters not at all. Cindy has gone pro. And in doing so has cast off her moral authority as a Gold Star mother. Now, she is about the same as those ambulance-chasing lawyers whose commercials you see on late night TV. The strong suspicion is that she is principally in this for the face time with the TV cameras and her "advisors" are mainly in it to torpedo Mr. Bush. (A worthy goal on their part too, but as with the hyena-like tabacco litigation lawyers, they are doing a relatively "good" thing for patently and obviously "bad" reasons. A moral conundrum to be sure, eh? But I digress.)

The steady accumulation of Left-wingers, Democratic Operatives, publicity hounds, and the other opportunists she has thrown in with is making a noble and touching action on her part into a pathetic media spectacle that both diminishes her credibility when she acts the part of the grieving mother and invites legitimate attacks on her from the Right-wing media and neo-conservative pundits and blogs.

The final straw for me was the appearance of the Reverend Al Sharpton in Crawford this week and his pudgy face in front of the cameras mouthing off as always, (but on Mrs. Sheehan's behalf of course, eh Al?) Whether through ignorance or naivete Sheehan has blown it badly here by throwing her lot in with Joe Trippi, Michael Moore, Martin Sheen, and now Rev. Al.

Here is my cynical prediction, FWIW: When the hearings for SCOTUS nominee John Roberts begin in a few days (and so the media have a new bone to chew on), all of Cindy's "friends and advisors" will fade away, and by Christmas (if not by Thanksgiving), it will be "Cindy who?"

Moral credibility is terrible thing to waste.

-Ali Massoud