Sicko de Mayo

On this 5th of May where the Mexicans celebrate their victory over the French (hey, everybody's beaten the French at one time or another, but they don't all have colorful holidays to celebrate), I bring you the "Sicko de Mayo".

Yesterday the heckling Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld got from a former CIA analyst made all the news broadcasts:

ATLANTA - Already under fire from some retired military brass who want him to resign, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was greeted at a speech in Atlanta by unusually hostile anti-war protesters.

“This man needs to be in prison for war crimes,” shouted Gloria Tatum, 63, of nearby Decatur, Ga., before being hauled away by security officials.

Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and noted critic of the war in Iraq, waited patiently in line to question Rumsfeld, then let loose.

“Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” McGovern said.

What I didn't hear on any of the broadcasts was that the vocal Mr. McGovern has a bit of a problem with folks of the Hebrew persuasion. How about this excerpt from a Little Green Footballs post on a mock impeachment hearing:

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration “neocons” so “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation,” McGovern said. “The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.”

As LGF later pointed out, the event was so anti-Semitic even Howard the Donkey was forced to denounce it:

“We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and condemns the allegations,” Dean said in a statement posted on the DNC Web site. ...

Conyers’ event occurred in a small Capitol meeting room, and an overflow crowd watched witnesses on television in a conference room at DNC headquarters. According to Dean, some material distributed within the DNC conference room implied that Israel was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

One witness, former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, told Conyers and other House Democrats that the war was part of an effort to allow the United States and Israel to “dominate that part of the world,” a statement Dean also condemned.

McGovern is now making the rounds of the news shows to celebrate his "speaking truth to power". Will anyone ask him about his anti-Semitic leanings? Probably not.