Even the Democrats Do Not Get It

The Sunday Morning Talk shows have framed the controversy about "9/11 images" for his ad campaign around using *any* images invoking 9/11. None of the commentaters -- Ed Kennedy, Cokie Roberts, James Caraville, Maralee Matalin, to give an example, and noting that some do it purposely -- get that the issue is not using 9/11 images.

The issue raised by some of the 9/11 victim's famillies is Bush using the corpses of their loved ones, draped in flags, as a political image. It is patently offensive to see the dead body of your husband or wife draped across the political ad of Bush, if you oppose the man's policies. To say that "we all own these images" groups someone's corpose with the picture of a flag in front of the WTC -- and clearly the two are different. It is using your wife's picture to help his political position, when that image is powerful, and your wife -- and you, for that matter -- are against Bush's policies. The dead, who cannot speak for themselves, should not have their images used so contrarily to their beliefs, particularly if they could have stopped it if they were alive.

On the other hand, they probably could not have stopped the use of their image for political purpses if they were alive. So, there's no legal issue, it's simply a political one. Which means that people can complain all they like, that's what they should do, and no one need do anything about it.