Do you hear that, Martha Burk?

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Do you hear that, Martha Burk? It's the clock ticking on your 15 minutes of fame. Thankfully it is winding down. You will have your day in a couple of weeks when the Masters is held.

Your face will be everywhere, your words will be regurgitated in papers across the country and, with the exception of Tiger Woods, you will be the most important person at the tournament.

However, when Woods most likely puts on his third green jacket, the last cries of sexism are yelled and the last protest sign is taken down, you and your golf course-sized ego will go back to your office at the National Council of Women's Organizations. Hopefully, never to be heard from again.

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I am sorry. But in your noble quest to bring a woman member to the Augusta Country Club to promote equality, you've somehow made the story about you instead.

It happens all the time. Spokespeople fighting for a cause somehow become the story. Maybe it was vanity that got you to this point, maybe it was egotism or even sheer arrogance. Most likely it was what my second-grade teacher used to call "diarrhea of the mouth."

Except there is no amount of Pepto-Bismol that could fix your latest diatribe.

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In a news conference Wednesday, you told reporters that "broadcasting the Masters now and showcasing a club that discriminates against women is an insult to the nearly quarter million women in the U.S. Armed Forces."

No, Ms. Burk, for you to have the audacity to include the women soldiers in Iraq in the same sentence describing your little protest is even more insulting to them.

It doesn't make your cause look any stronger, it just makes it, and you, look small.

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In the same press conference, you also said: "Women in the military know what it's like to fight for equal opportunity. While I know that more important things are on their minds, as more important things are on the mind of the nation, including us, it is just part of a continuum of discrimination."

Oh really, you think that there might be more important things on their minds than putting one rich old woman in a country club full of rich old men? Somehow chemical weapons, grenades and Iraqi forces may hold just a little higher significance than 500 angry women standing outside the gates of a golf course.

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But that wasn't enough you added: "It's appalling that the women who are willing to lay down their lives for democratic ideals should be shut out of this club. ... Democratic ideals don't include discrimination."

No, what is appalling is that you are taking something as tragic as war and U.S. soldiers dying and using it in the same breath as a protest against a country club.

Shame on you for being so self-centric that you would actually use something as horrible and terrifying as war to try and further your cause.

Listen to me carefully, "There is no such thing as a stupid protest, just stupid ways to protest." And right now, you have passed the point of stupidity and are bordering somewhere between obsessiveness and insanity.

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There were hints that something like this would happen. There was no television camera you wouldn't stand in front of, or reporter's microphone that you wouldn't speak into.

What is sad is that yours was the winning debate. Even the New York Times championed your cause. People for the most part thought that a woman member, just one woman member, wasn't too much to ask from Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson. With the Ku Klux Klan planning to protest for Augusta, you couldn't help but look like the good guy.

But you simply wouldn't be satisfied. Instead of following the less-is-more decorum, you just kept pushing. First, it was admit a female member. Next, the companies needed to pull their sponsorship. After that, Woods and his fellow golfers need to boycott the tournament. And after that, CBS shouldn't televise the tournament at all. And finally this.

There is a line of decency in these situations and you have not only stepped over it, you've set up camp on the other side.

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The more you keep talking, the worse off your cause gets. With your latest speech, you and your organization have slid below People for Ethical Treatment of Animals in terms of credibility and are hovering somewhere near the Save the Spotted Owl Society.

Will Augusta admit a female member at some point? Sure, it will happen. But will it happen soon enough for you to take credit for it? Not quite. Johnson and his pals will never give you the satisfaction. It's about as likely as someone remembering your name five years from now.

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Listen closely, Ms. Burk. Do you hear it? Your time is running out. Despite all your grandstanding and protesting, Augusta National Country Club won't admit a female member to please you. They won't, simply to spite you.

Your 15 minutes of fame will be gone before you realize the mistakes you've made. Is there something you can do to repair the damage your latest sermon caused? Doubtful.

Nobody cares about your protest anymore. You've trivialized it by comparing it to the life or death situation our troops in Iraq face every day. It's too late. You're starting to fade away. Do you hear it?

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