Well done on Code Pink

My good friend Britt Peterson has an excellent and well-reported piece on Code Pink today in TNR. She really got inside the group, letting descriptions speak volumes. I always feel a problematic relationship with Code Pink. I respect and admire their tenacious activism, but I have to admit I feel irritated every time I go to a hearing and they interrupt to shout extremist accusations. I have to say, they may also take a little too much credit for ideological movement in Congress:

"We feel like we moved the Democrats in Congress--not fast, not far enough," said Medea Benjamin, one of the group's founders. "But we moved Hillary Clinton, we moved Nancy Pelosi." Hourican said, "If it weren't for Code Pink, people wouldn't be moving [to an antiwar position]."

I think the antiwar movement is much different than it was for the Vietnam War. It's a quieter opposition, mainly expressed through opinion polls. Although activists play a role, there's really not a question that antiwar sentiment is increasing when it's widely reported that polling indicates the war is increasingly unpopular.