Angry in the Great White North

a heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal

The problem here is about parceling out the insults and ratcheting up the pressure. You don't yell out the most extreme criticism you can come up with, and then hope that people around you will want to spend time with you, especially if they know they aren't in your good books.

For instance, let's pretend I've been interviewed by Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, and it did not go well. What do I say? In order, this is the way to go:

• Bill O'Reilly is a rude man.


• Bill O'Reilly makes a mockery of his profession.


• Bill O'Reilly clearly does not understand how to have a conversation, much less conduct an interview.


• Bill O'Reilly should be taken off the air until he learns to treat his guests and his viewers with respect.

See the escalation? From a mild reproach concerning his manners to a call for him to lose his job. Each step allows me to continue to bring the pressure up, but at the same time provides an opportunity to cool things off.

At the early stages, certainly, Bill O'Reilly and others might still be willing to talk to me. I haven't burned any bridges.

Or you can use the Cindy Sheehan approach:

She said O'Reilly's an "obscenity to the truth and an obscenity to humanity."

See, she blew it. Coming out of the gate and she compares him in an unflattering way to all humanity. All of it. Everyone.

Some folks are mocking George W Bush for not meeting with her. First, he has already met with her in what has been described as a very touching event. He's the President -- he doesn't have time to do curtain calls. Not unless there is reason to think something significant will come of it. He's just too busy.

Don't start about the President being on vacation. The President is never on vacation.

Second, and this is where the "obscenity" screech comes into play, why would he meet with her? What evidence is there that such a meeting would be useful? Indeed, give me some reason to believe that Sheehan would not lunge at the President, requiring the Secret Service to wrestle her down to the ground. If you think there's even a chance of that happening, then he's doing her a favour by keeping her away.

She speaks in threatening tones and in extremes, exuding a field of irrationality all around her, egged on by the hard left. There is no way she would be allowed to come anywhere near the President, much less meet with him.

So until she starts to act with a modicum of restraint, she is never going to get her wish. And I doubt even then.

Why? Because the smell of burnt bridges hangs all around her.