Senator John McCain was heckled as he delivered the commencement speech at the New School in New York, as noted here by Richard Baehr.  Senator McCain's fellow commencement speaker and lead heckler, Sara Jean Rohe, has been catapulted into the big time by the protest against the Senator.  Her remarks have been widely reported in the mainstream media and seconded by Maureen Dowd ($ link via NYT Select).

Courageously speaking today's truth to yesterday's war hero, the imperialist Senator, has also garnered Ms. Rohe enough street cred to land a post at the former Mrs. Huffington's blog. It seems an odd blend — part MySpace and part MyManifesto:

"I was in a terrible state of anxiety. What if it didn't work? Didn't my earlier speech make my position clear enough? I told him my new idea. "Jean, you have to do it. You'll kick yourself later if you don't." "But it's two in the morning. There's no way it's going to be any good." "Jean, do it. You'll have nothing to regret." [....]

"I chose to begin my address this way because, as always, but especially now, we are living in a time of violence, of war, of injustice. I am thinking of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in Darfur, in Sri Lanka, in Mogadishu, in Israel/Palestine, right here in the U.S., and many, many other places around the world."

Two—hundred and fifty—five free—speech, anti—injustice, anti—imperialist, pro—Rohe commenters had her back (so far) over at HuffPo.  If you go over to read it please be sure to check out Ms. Rohe's bio:

Jean spent a year at Smith College followed by a summer at the Universidad de la Habana in Cuba on scholarship where she honed her Spanish skills, learned about Cuban history, culture, and politics, and made some of her dearest friends.

One wonders if, during her summer in Havana, Ms. Rohe noticed something, er, different about the place.

Stephen Shields  5 21 06