"In the defense of a Fallen Hero"

August 2006

The recent incident at the Augusta County Fair where a Democrat Volunteer of the Jim Webb campaign made a insulting comment about the memory of Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Redifer to his mother, Rhonda Winfield has received much attention within the County Republicans. Unfortunately the local Waynesboro newspaper "elected" to voice their opinion as to what happened on their opinion page without interviewing Rhonda Winfield. But they did interview the Democrat Volunteer about the incident and published his comments...

"If you think all conservatives wear

suits you haven't met the United Conservatives of Virginia!

We go where wingtips fear to tread!"

Flora over at the "United Conservatives" blog read about the incident and took a ride over to Richmond to meet and interview Rhonda Winfield. She conducted a in depth interview and has been reporting on it for the past several days and it is exactly what the Waynesboro newspaper, The NewsVirginian should have done. Link to her post on this follows:

http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/08/news-virginian-another-example-of.html

"I know Rhonda Winfield, & she is NO Cindy Sheehan"

Media

The local Waynesboro newspaper The Newsvirginian has turned a recent incident where a Democrat volunteer to the Jim Webb Senate campaign insulted the memory of a fallen U.S. Marine into a "Cindy Sheehan" issue.

The "NewsVirginian" stated on it's Opinion page: "However, Republicans have no compunction about attacking another mother who also lost her son in Iraq. The difference is Cindy Sheehan has joined the antiwar movement. That should not make her a target of neoconservative wrath. A mother is a mother, whether she’s a Democrat or Republican. Winfield is as far right as Sheehan is left. Both should be off limits to criticism."

As stated in the title of this post, I do know Rhonda Winfield and she is no Cindy Sheehan. Rhonda has continually supported the memory of her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Redifer who was lost in Iraq fighting the war on terrorism. She wrote a book about her son and his sacrafice to our country and it's citizens. Sheehan on the other hand has taken the memory of her son and turned it into a politcal vehicle for her benefit while the media disregards the facts about her son, Casey Sheehan...

It is unfortunate, but not unexpected, that the local newspaper has turned this away from a attack on the memory of a fallen soldier and to a political issue.

Let me point out a few facts about Cindy Sheehan and her son:

Casey Sheehan volunteered for his service to the military...

Casey Sheehan re-enlisted in the military when he had the opportunity...

Casey Sheehan volunteered for the rescue mission which he was killed on while trying to rescue other military personnel and serving his country...

Cindy Sheehan has taken every opportunity to capitialize on the loss of her son and she has truely turned the issue into a political one...

Rhonda, is NO Cindy Sheehan....

Flora over at United Conservatives Blog has a novel idea but one that I doubt the local Democrat party will use...

http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/08/webb-campaigner-insults-lcpl-jason.html

No need for facts, we have a "Opinion" page...

It seems that the NewsVirginian newspaper elected to present their "Opinion" on the incident that happened at the Augusta County Fair last week when a Democrat volunteer made an unacceptable comment to the Mother of a fallen soldier.
http://newsvirginian.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNV%2FMGArticle%2FWNV_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149189998774&path=!news!opinions
The interesting thing is that the Waynesboro Newspaper the "NewsVirginian" wrote this piece without ever interviewing Rhonda Winfield or myself about what happened.

The incident has been described here on this blog as "Over the Line " as well as a follow up interview with Rhonda Winfield that appears on the United Conservatives blog done by a seperate person.
http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/08/augusta-co-dems-insult-fallen-warrior.html


Another Augusta County resident and blogger describes the reception that he got from the Republican, Libertarian, and Democrat booth as well in this post in: http://augustafreepress.blogspot.com/2006/08/rude-political-awakening.html

It is sad to see that both the Democrats as well as the local media has decided to make this a political issue instead of the attack on the memory of a fallen hero. It appears to be evident that the Democrats feel this was a attack on their volunteers and had nothing to do with the comments made to Rhonda by their volunteer.

The Augusta County Democrats are obvious strong supporters of the troops as evident in the paper hand written sign that was displayed above their booth during the fair.

more to follow...