[Washington, D.C., December 8. Image via Getty]

WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 08: A demonstrator from Code Pink for Peace holds up a sign before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the war in Afghanistan December 8, 2009 in Washington, DC. Although they previously disagreed on the way forward in Afghanistan, Commander of United States Forces Afghanistan U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry said they fully agree with President Barack Obama's plans for increasing U.S. forces in the war-torn country. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

[Washington, D.C., December 1. Image via Getty]

WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 01: Member of CodePink Gael Murphy shouts slogans as she protests against 'escalation of the war in Afghanistan' in front of the White House December 1, 2009 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama will layout his plan for the ongoing war in Afghanistan during a prime time announcement this evening from the United States Military Academy at West Point. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

[Washington, D.C., July 29. Image via Getty]

Bikini-clad members of 'Code Pink' smeared in 'mud' protest Ahava products in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2009. Ahava, a cosmeceutical company based in Israel that manufactures skin-care products from the Dead Sea, promises �Beauty Secrets from the Dead Sea.� According to Code Pink, the products actually come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the Occupied Territory of the Palestinian West Bank, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. AFP PHOTO/Karen BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

They're still opposed to the war, and to campus recruitment, to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and to the bail-out — the big issue of the day — and basically anything else that gets their faces on TV. Benjamin argues that having a continued media presence by chasing the issue of the day around Capitol Hill hearing rooms allows them to get more attention for their signature issue — the wars. Other people disagree.

Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty, thinks that the anti-war group, and some others like it, suffer from the nonprofit version of the bureaucratic politics theory, "where the organization becomes the end goal."

In other words, the goal isn't to change anything in particular, it's to continue to be able to protest things. Even Congressman Barney Frank — a vocal anti-war advocate himself — is sick of their shit and told them so in a hearing they interrupted last week.

In the manner of a had-it-up-to-here schoolteacher, Frank told the activists to "act their age."

"I do not know how you think you could advance any cause to which you might be attached by this kind of silliness," Frank said.

Benjamin thinks this was awesome, because it got her all kind of right-wing radio time where she believes she made allies. Right-wingers disagree.

"They haven't changed," [Erick] Erickson [of RedState.com] said of Code Pink. "They still hate America. Which is why they won't get any conservative support. They're against the bailout because they hate capitalism."

Some allies. Even self-described liberals are done with the pink protestors.

"Code Pink has never been more than a nuisance - an ineffective, self-indulgent, obnoxious and tone-deaf organization," said Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.

"It was never relevant before, and it certainly isn't relevant today," Moulitsas said. "I'm sure their antics make them feel good about themselves, make them feel as if they're accomplishing something, but in reality they've done nothing but piss off everyone around them, including potential allies."

Of course, it was a blogger on Moulitsas' eponymous site that originated the shitty untrue rumors about Trig Palin's "true" parentage and he used to have a days-long conference for liberal bloggers named after himself, so he might know something about being self-indulgent and tone-deaf.

Code Pink was — at its inception — a good idea, which is why it gained prominence. It wasn't about jeering politicians for the sake of jeering politicians, or protesting something for the sake of protesting anything. It was about giving women prominence in the anti-war debate, about reclaiming the color pink in an aggressive way, and about trying to end what its members viewed as an unjust and unjustifiable war. But 6 years later, with one war drawing to a supposed end, and a popular new President scaling up the other (and most Americans seemingly in favor of him doing so), their stop-the-war shtick is no longer popularly unpopular, it's just shtick.

It's shtick because there doesn't seem to be any ideology or issue or even thought that their silly dress and deliberately ham-handed protests are subversively getting you to pay attention to. Their strategy is to get attention, to follow the cameras if the cameras won't follow them and to be seen while being against things, rather than for anything, or helpful to anything. It's the middle-aged equivalent of the professional college-age protester, all white kid dreds and puppets and unfocused rage at the system. And it gives me another reason to dislike pink.

Code Pink Changes Its Hue [Politico]

Earlier: Sarah Palin Rumors: Some People Are Taking The Low Road

Although Ann is concerned enough about the American justice system to wear an "orange Guantanamo detainee-style jumpsuit" with the words "GONZALES, A" into Capitol Hill's Dirksen Building, the retired Army colonel still cares what she looks like when she gets thrown out of the building, dammit!

The "security guard who takes the pictures, he's really nice," says Wright, who says she, too, was banned from the building after a Hillary Clinton event. "If the picture isn't very good or if you don't have your peace symbol right, he lets you take it over again."

Protesting For Peace With A Vivid Hue And Cry [WashingtonPost]