Two Sheehans.(Cindy Sheehan's protest)

A GRAVE makes a painful and unignorable podium. Cindy Sheehan made bad use of the grave of her son, Spc. Casey Sheehan, for the weeks she camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Grief can give one a right to speak, or add force to what one says. "I was the man," wrote Walt Whitman, "I suffered, I was there." But arguments and advice must then make their way on their own. Both the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence invoke grief; the Declaration also summons rage ("a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant ..."). But then they make their cases for war, independence, and freedom.

Here are some of the cases Cindy Sheehan has been making. "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine, and you'll stop the terrorism." "Just what was the noble cause Casey [Sheehan] died for? Was it freedom and democracy? Bullsh**! He died for oil. He died to make [President Bush's] friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East." "America has been killing people ... since we first stepped on this continent; we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bullsh** to my son, and my son enlisted. I'm going all over the country telling moms: This country is not worth dying for." These are the rants of the Noam Chomsky, MoveOn Left, channeled by a bereaved mother, but no less false or dishonorable for that.

The mainstream media embraced Mrs. Sheehan because they want a story in August, and they want a liberal ...