By SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press Writer
August 9, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - A tearful Cindy Sheehan cited her son, killed
in Iraq, as her inspiration as she announced her candidacy
Thursday for the U.S. House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Sheehan last month said she intended to run against Pelosi,
the House speaker, if the San Francisco congresswoman didn't
move to impeach President Bush by July 23.
Sheehan said Thursday that Pelosi had "protected the
status quo" of the corporate elite and had lost touch
with people in her district, most of whom, she asserted, want
American troops out of Iraq.
Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, would not comment
on Sheehan's candidacy but said the speaker has always opposed
the war in Iraq and has focused on bringing troops home "safely
and soon."
After her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004,
Sheehan gained international attention by setting up camp outside
the president's Texas ranch and demanding to meet with him.
On Thursday, Sheehan said her son inspired her to run against
Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since
1987.
"The country is ripe for a change," said Sheehan,
who spoke at a podium with her son's photograph attached to
it. "It's going to start right here and right now."
Sheehan said she would run as an independent on a platform
of universal health care, making college affordable and improving
ethics in the legislative and executive branches. She did not
offer specifics.
The money being spent on the Iraq war should be used to help
the country's shrinking middle class, she said.
Sheehan said she had no funds for a campaign but planned to
immediately start raising money. She said she wouldn't accept
money from corporations.
Daniel Ellsberg, the former high-level Pentagon analyst who
in 1969 leaked the Pentagon Papers to Congress and the media
and a Sheehan supporter, said Sheehan has a difficult task.
"At the moment, facing a well-funded, powerful incumbent
without party support, the odds against Cindy appear insuperable," said
Ellsberg, who was arrested twice with other protesters outside
Bush's Texas ranch.
"But we plan to change that."
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