As the press falls all over itself presenting Cindy Sheehan as an American heroine, they don’t provide quite enough information about her entourage.
Sure, there were some neat pix of Cindy hugging the Rev. Al Sharpton. But we must thank National Review’s Byron York for introducing us to “Cindy Sheehan’s radical strategist,” Lisa Fithian, who has been with Cindy since the beginning.
York writes:
“In November 2003, Fithian was profiled by The New York Times Magazine as she prepared to take part in protests at the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in Miami. As she did with NRO, Fithian demurred when asked if she was a leader of the demonstrations — she claimed that the movement was ‘nonauthoritarian’ and ‘nonhierarchical’ and had no leaders at all — but the Times was not convinced. ‘To say that Fithian is not a leader is an admirable political idea, but it’s not entirely honest,’ the paper reported.
“And she was a tough-minded leader, not at all a peace-and-love type. Her specialty was action; she wanted to break in, cut through fences, and shut things down. ‘You don’t go to Fithian when you want to carry a placard,’ the Times profile said. ‘You go to her when you want to make sure there are enough bolt cutters to go around.’ Asked for a fuller explanation of her role in the protests, Fithian said, ‘When people ask me, ‘What do you do?’ I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible.'”