In an e-mail to his constituents in Minnesota’s 5th District, Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minneapolis) explained why he voted yes on the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability supplemental funding request.
Ellison’s statement:
“This vote, plain and simple, comes down to ending the war – or not. I believe this bill is a vote to end this war. It is not the bill I would have written. From the beginning of my campaign, my position was out of Iraq – now. But let us not confuse our goals with our methods. This is the first piece of legislation that actually puts timetables on ending this senseless involvement in Iraq. It is the best vehicle we have before us to end the war.
Voting for benchmarks and deadlines is a vote to end the war. Voting against the deadlines is a vote to support war without end. The startling irony is that the people who hate the war the most could be forced into a coalition that will strengthen President George Bush’s hand to continue the war unabated.
It is painful and difficult to do anything other than to cast a no vote for any further funding of this war. But I will not strengthen this President’s position by voting against imperfect timelines. Make no mistake about it.this President wants this vote on timelines to fail.
I know with each month that this civil war deepens, we lose another 100 young American men and women; 100 Iraqi civilians die every day, and we spend another $8 billion dollars a month in Iraq that is sorely needed here at home. This loss of life is tragic and unacceptable.
But we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The alternative to this proposal is more of the same – with no leverage whatsoever on the President’s disastrous war. To me, that is the larger issue: allowing this President’s policies to go unchecked one single day more. I’m simply not willing to ask any more American families to jeopardize the safety, well-being and future of their sons or daughters ad-infinitum for an ill-conceived and ineptly executed war that had nothing to do with 9/11 or the war on terrorism.
I also see this bill as a beginning – one I intend to firmly hold the Democratic Leadership and the President to. For many of my colleagues, the Democratic timetable for troop withdrawal is the first positive sign in four years since the Iraq War began. They are right. For me, and the Minnesotans I represent, troop withdrawal is not some position paper; it is linked to time – and time is measured in lives. My conscience tells me the time is now – and this legislation is the best vehicle we have before us to end this debacle.”
Darren Naath< You say: "I assume you are Middle Eastern?" Your blatently ignorant assumption is wrong. "[Bush]'s made America a lot more safer place" Actually, when the National Intelligence Estimate report came out a couple of years ago, the top four U.S. Intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that Bush's actions in the "War on Terror" had: 1). Made the U.S. less safe, rather than more and 2). Created a breeding ground for terrorists in Iraq where none had existed before. "Keith Ellison is a liberal fool that will not be re-elected." Keith Ellison will be re-elected and probably gain over 60% of the vote here in the very intelligent and highly educated 5th District of Minnesota where I live. Once again you simply reveal your ignorance. "You claim that your civil liberties and rights have been taken away?" Yes. No cogent analysis of what has taken place over the last 7+ years disputes this. Liberal and Conservative scholars agree on this point. The only valid question is whether taking them away was necessary, helpful or legal. "It's people like you that the Fed's need to investigate" I am sure that I have been under investigation by the federal government for a few years. I am still free because I am a law-abiding citizen exercising my First Amendment Rights - while they still exist. "I STRONGLY believe are linked to some sort of terrorist organization" Well... you can STRONGLY believe that the moon is made of cheese, but in both cases you prove yourself a fool. I hope you are able to take the time to finish your high school education, Darren. Even the worst public schools in America could help you learn to think a little more clearly and to help you overcome your ignorance and bias.
Then for you Mikael – I assume you are Middle Eastern? You seem to dislike what the Bush administration has done since the 911 attacks. He’s made America a lot more safer place – you just don’t get it. By comparing Bush to Hitler – you and everyone who compares is simply an idiot. Keith Ellison is a liberal fool that will not be re-elected. You claim that your civil liberties and rights have been taken away? It’s people like you that the Fed’s need to investigate – individuals who CLAIM their rights have been taken away I STRONGLY believe are linked to some sort of terrorist organization – and they need to be added to the federal watch list for suspected terrorists – yes this includes you Mikael.
The Bush Administration and the National Socialists of Germany in the 1930’s have many similarities and they have used 9/11 much like the Nazis used the Reichstag Fire – to garner support for their crackdown on civil liberties and rights. It isn’t that much of a stretch.
Hitler started with the gypsies and the gays.
Bush started with the arabs and the mexicans.
Showing “respect for out government or leader” is NOT Ellison’s oath of office. He swore to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” and is honoring that oath in calling for the impeachment of Dick Cheney and calling out Bush’s crimes and misdemeanors.
Keith Ellison is my Representative and he is a fabulous representative of the 5th District of Minnesota – one of the smartest, most highly politically active and educated districts in the nation.
Sorry Darren… you are point blank wrong on this one.
Rep. Ellison is what I consider a “boor”. How DARE you compare our President to Hitler. You have no respect for our government or leader, plain and simple as you say it, step down as Rep of Minnesota and get out of the U.S.. I pray to God that the people of Minnesota vote differently next time and get you out of office. Because you show no respect for our leader as you should and with that being your duty, you have NO place in our Government. Get out, or we will throw you out!
from: [MPPeace] Fw: [progressive_dfl] Peace, Politics, Ellison, Expectations
The essay in the message I’m forwarding below is one of the best essays on the relation between idealism and realism in political activism that I’ve ever read, written last week by Ric Studer, a longtime leading DFL figure in St. Cloud and past Chair of the DFL-Progressive Caucus.
It was written in response to, and to comments from others about, Keith Ellsion’s vote in the House last week for the bill about funding the war in Iraq and setting a timetable. It’s a very intelligent, articulate, deep, and excellent essay about the general relation between idealism and realism in politics, not merely the one bill in question.
John Schwarz
Hello,
I had intended not to voice my opinion on the issue of Rep. Ellison’s vote on war funding. After all I am not his constituent. I have no illusions about my congresswoman’s position on Iraq. I live in Minnesota’s sixth district. Need I say more. Although peace is a vital issue to me, my dismay over her vote does not include the aura of betrayal the peace advocates of the fifth district are currently laboring under.
I just got off the phone with my 12 year old daughter. She is a budding young actress. Her mother had promised her a trip to Moorhead to see her aunt perform in a play. The trip was to include an overnight stay and some shopping. Her mother’s car was revealed to need repairs. Her mother was uncomfortable driving the other family vehicle under these circumstances, a van she never drives, and canceled the trip. My daughter went ballistic. She actually grabbed her Mother’s keys and tried to take the car needing repair out of the driveway and on to Moorhead. She called her mother lazy and said Mom had consciously ruined her whole weekend. Those of you with tweens and/or teens can commiserate.
Just why do I raise this off topic issue of my daughter’s wrath. Because I listened to what I said to her and realized it had a great deal to do with the current topic of immense disappointment and betrayal peace activists are experiencing. I told my daughter that although it is perfectly O.K. for her to be disappointed and yes, angry, about not being able to get what she expected, what had been promised to her, that it wasn’t worth allowing circumstance to make her miserable and it was especially wrong to make everyone else around her miserable just because she was. I told her it was wrong to call her mother lazy and chide her for being scared because she had to make a decision for everyone, not just her, not just you, that was, in her best judgment, the decision that would protect them all from a potential greater danger than disappointment.
I told her that life was full of disappointments, of broken promises, and that if she insisted on clinging desperately to getting exactly what she wanted she would be doomed to unhappiness. I advised her to work together with her mother to formulate a new plan that would get her most of what she wanted, but in a new way she perhaps hadn’t thought of.
Not that I am the greatest parent but I felt I had given her good advice in this instance. And I feel this advice can easily carry over into the current controversy. It is O.K. to feel hurt, disappointed and betrayed. It is O.K. to be angry and to vow to continue to fight for what you want and to struggle to hold those who you feel betrayed you to their promises. But it is not O.K. to allow your despair to cause you to try and make everyone around you miserable. You should strive to maintain respect for those who represent many people, not just themselves, that make difficult decisions, even when those decisions are unfathomable. You should keep working together with this legal authority to strive for what you want, perhaps in a new way, one you hadn’t considered.
The ideal circumstance is just that, an ideal. It is a goal not to be insisted upon at the expense of everything else but to be reached for in any way that may present itself. It is true that activism is not the same as politics. However I disagree that activists cannot be politicians. Those who choose to do so will inevitably disappoint their fellow activists. This is most difficult and is only part of the reason that a life of public service can be a thankless task. Activists exist to maintain the status quo of hardline adherence to immovable principle. Politics exists to find useful compromise that includes the needs of as many disparate citizens as possible. Thus, the “job” description for activist and politician are quite different.
An activist who becomes a politician knows he will make promises he will ultimately break because it is the job of his opponents to create situations where he will inevitably stub his toe. This is a function of the reality of politics that places undo emphasis on reelection over doing the right thing. The game becomes more important than the work of the people. This is nothing new and just as the gamesmanship will not change until there is an obvious majority of will to do away with it among the people neither will the necessity of rock and hard place decisions by surrounded legislators. Until activists keep working hard and eventually educate the unconcerned and misguided masses to the realities of life in this nation and on this planet to the degree that they insist that the job description of the legislator return to doing ‘our’ work rather than continuing to play the political game, nothing will change.
As long as longevity is more important than correctness in D.C. our legislators will be emasculated by the realities of reelection. So we are disappointed, exceedingly so, but we must not let the despair of our own folly in expecting that one man could change the system destroy our ability to continue the good fight. So my advice to the peace activists in Mpls. would be to stand up, keep fighting, be the good citizens you know yourselves to be, push your congressman, he expects you to, but forgive him and remind him gently not to forget what got him there and where he comes from. Then let him continue to do the best he can and ask yourself what you would do under the same circumstances and if it would truly serve your values and principles or would it merely be a feel good but ultimately sadly empty gesture.
The most difficult thing for a true activist is to see the forest for the trees. A true activist becomes the tree. It is nearly impossible for him to see the big picture. He must, through a gargantuan exertion of will, force himself out of the myopic vision that allows him to be an expert on a little bit, and accept that in reality he is still a novice at almost everything else. To demand humility and apologies from our elected representatives we must be willing to accept our own humility and apologize for getting carried away in the singularity of our purpose to the degree that we cannot allow others a larger vision.
Mostly, I desperately wish I had a Keith Ellison to be angry at rather than the country club matron on steroids who currently “represents” me. Please consider the relativity of that statement and if you can, continue to love and support your representative as he continues to navigate the ungodly minefield set up for him in our nation’s capital.
I fully expect any number of you will find fault with what I have just written. I welcome respectful disagreement with and discussion of the opinions I have herein expressed. Thanks for the opportunity to voice them. That simple opportunity of expression is a rare gift of our constitution’s bill of rights and I cherish it greatly.
In Peace, Ric Studer, St. Cloud
Here is the e-mail newsletter that came out today from Rep. Ellison:
Dear Mikael,
First, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you again for your support during our historic campaign last fall. We showed what can happen when people put aside their differences and embrace the politics of generosity and inclusion.
The 110th Congress has accomplished a lot over these first few months. In just the first 100 hours we were able to raise the minimum wage, roll back subsidies to big oil and cut interest rates on student loans. And just last week, we took a historic first step in ending the Iraqi civil war. There is still a lot of work to be done though. Here at home, 46 million Americans go without healthcare. And our country continues to be reliant on foreign energy. You have my word that I will continue to be an advocate for progressive solutions to these and other problems.
Today, I ask you to join me and renew your commitment to the progressive values we all share: values like peace, prosperity for working families, sustainability and human rights. With precinct caucuses less than a year away and our March 31 reporting deadline fast-approaching, your financial support is critical in our effort to ensure that we have the resources we need for the upcoming 2008 election season. Please give what you can and help us keep our historic momentum.
Thank you again for all you have done and all you continue to do.
Sincerely,
-Keith
[I recieved this e-mail along the lines of this topic and thought I would toss it in here – Mikael]
think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more think more … ok talk
Dearest Mikael aka peace warrior , hey man long time no discussion . Okay let me get to the point ! Every effort you’ve put into your ( indeed ” THE ” ) political discourse has left me with joy ( look at my boy whoop ass! ) , envy ( why am i not doing this with him? ) and shame ( my lack of what i consider citizen participation ) as i continue to witness and record the insanity that MANKIND has morphed into . Now i know that inaction is frowned upon in this country and i can understand this considering this country was founded ( stolen ) on the ideology of independence and adventurism but i am finding that much is lost on EXTREMES . The extremes i speak of should be obvious but in case they’re not i ‘ ll get back to them in a minute . First i would just like to comment on my disappointment towards the people that consider themselves part of the peace movement that are upset with Rep. Ellison . While i understand the disappointment that some may feel about the Dems. not getting our troops out yesterday, i don’t think people ( in America anyway! )even come close to understanding words like process or thought or for lack of eloquence ….FUCKEN CHILL THE FUCK OUT !!!! We meaning us , just got this man into office and we expect instant change or else ? Don’t we understand this kind of bumper slogan thinking and action is what got us in this mess in the first place ? ” BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW ” sounds about as brilliant as “YOU’RE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US ” or “IF YOU DON’T SUPPORT THE WAR YOU DON’T SUPPORT THE TROOPS ” or my latest favorite ” I SERVE AT THE PLEASURE OF THE PRESIDENT ” . Could someone please tell them that the president is supposed to serve at the pleasure of the people !? Anyway , look man , i know you know i respect the hell out of you but this madness of instant American ( lately synonymous with righteous ignorance ) gratification from all sides is getting a bit out of hand isn’t it ? Please tell me what’s the difference between our demands and theirs ? Aren’t we all Americans ? Aren’t we all from the one race that really matters … life ? If you’re honestly concerned about change , let that change start with replacing ignorance with knowledge with hopes of it growing into wisdom ( if we don’t all kill each other first ) . I don’t know , maybe the surprise is on the people that have never known sexism , racism , genocide , segregation , poverty , violence everyday , working harder than most but making less , a toilet for a state ( See the latest in Palestine ) , being a straight – up victim to other peoples advancement . Do we really know where we fit in on that spectrum ? I think not , for if we did i wouldn’t be hearing all of this righteousness and screaming and finger- pointing and ignorance . The funny thing is ( and yes Buddha is laughing because he can see much more than what limits our vision ) neither side is saying anything really . It doesn’t sound very peaceful to let different sects of people kill each other off especially when we set up the conditions but hey , what’s another genocide ? Funny how nobody wants to spread democracy to Darfur . I guess that would be saving the wrong black energy. Now if i stopped there then i would just be another righteous – one but i choose to think therefore , where is all the liberal outrage about Darfur ? I guess since dumb-ass (bush) doesn’t care about it neither does his opposition . I am not a smart man and i can still have enough gumption to ask when will people stop being so damn reactive and think out of the box !?! When! WHEN!!!!!! It’s not hard to think YOUR cause is noble ,after all every ID (Freud) has a need to feel special ( And we all have one ) but to think as far as our little heads can take us and then understand there’s sooo much further to go and be okay with that because that pain of not being enough ( Seemingly an American trait , actually European, i just didn’t wanna piss off my my lighter shaded brothers ) is a pain we can be liberated from by not letting our egos do the thinking for us . Wow , sorry dude , i kinda lost myself there . I’m tired man. I’m tired of people that are smarter than they act . I’m tired of people that are stupid and making moves in our name .I’m mostly just tired of nothing being accomplished . We can do better but not until we drop them stones . My rampage is pretty understandable . Something my ancestors taught me a long time ago , don’t hate the devil for playing the role he’s supposed to play , just play your role better… if you know what it is . I think some people don’t take the time to figure that one out . Instead of attacking a person in the house that agrees with “the peoples” business ,give him a fucken chance to figure a way out of this bullshit without every Iraqi or the last 500 troops coming home being killed . Enough with these A.D.D. people whether they’re conservative or liberal . No matter how loud you scream you don’t control LIFE which is the real name of all of your Gods ( Actually ,for many it’s fear unfortunately ) . One day soon , a new movement … a real movement of thinkers will rise up . Will we be ready or still be talking bullshit bumper sticker slogans with no thought behind them . As long as you know your role Mikael i’ll always buy a ticket and cheer you on because you’ve taught me much . Hopefully it goes both ways . ONE….ya know ? – John Dread
March 26, 2007
Representative Ellison:
We, along with many in the peace movement, were shocked and disappointed
to see you vote for the Iraq War supplemental funding bill passed in the
House on Friday, March 23. We have read your statement about this vote,
and do not accept any of your excuses for breaking a promise to your
constituents.
You were elected to office largely on the strength of your “Out of Iraq
Now†position and many of your strongest supporters are members of the
anti-war movement. Organizers of the Occupation Project did not sit in
your office for the past seven Tuesdays because you promised to vote
against all future funding for the war. The Iraq Peace Action Coalition
invited you to speak at the March 18 anti-war rally in Minneapolis
because we believed you would use your position in Congress to call for
an immediate end to the unjust and immoral occupation of Iraq. On
Friday, you turned your back on all of this.
You say, “This is the first piece of legislation that actually puts
timetables on ending this senseless involvement in Iraq. It is the best
vehicle we have before us to end the war.†We disagree. A vote to
continue the war for 18 months with $123 billion in additional funding
is not a vote to end the war. It perpetuates a disastrous war that is
claiming innocent lives every day – over the weekend, following your
vote, 173 Iraqi civilians and 5 US soldiers were reported killed. If
this bill passes into law, it leaves President Bush free to wage the war
in Iraq – tens of thousands more will die. The crisis in Iraq will
deepen. And the cost at home will grow.
We are especially troubled by your explanation that “Voting against
deadlines is a vote to support war without end,†suggesting that anyone
opposing the bill would be supporting the Bush Administration’s
position. We do not accept this “you’re either with us or you’re with
the enemy†style of argument. You didn’t just walk away from Republicans
when you voted for $123 billion more for war in Iraq. You walked away
from allies among your own constituents, as well as colleagues like
Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich. We have always said that
timelines are not enough. It is not simply a pragmatic question, and the
answer did not change on Friday, and your vote represents a dramatic
reversal of your own position as you have stated it time and again here
in Minnesota.
We understand that it takes courage to maintain such a position, but you
cannot oppose the war while you vote to fund it. We call on you to
fulfill your campaign promises to vote against funds for war. We call on
you to stand with us not only as an invited speaker at our
demonstrations against this war, but also as our representative in
Congress. We urge you to never cast another vote that continues the war
in Iraq for even one day.
The Anti-War Committee
1313 5th St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
612.379.3899 http://www.antiwarcommittee.org
Draft the Dems, then ship them to fight in Iraq… I bet they would change their minds real quick
C’mon, folks. Ellison first got overwhelmed by being elected, by actually being in Congress and by Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, and the other Dem leadership in the House. And, then, he got hammered by them if he refused to “go along to get along.†He’s a people pleaser who sold out early and failed to stick with Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, and the other Out of Iraq members. He also failed to see that no matter what kind of no-escalation or evacuation bill got the House and Senate vote, Bush is either going to veto it or do a signing statement to take the $124 billion and ignore the rest.
So they might as well have shot for the moon and included Lee’s amendment or made an amendment of Woolsey’s HR 508.
What has to be done is for constituents to send Keith a bunch of “love-letters†from his constituents that don’t mince words about his sell-out to all those who worked their hearts out to get him elected and/or voted for him. He needs to be reminded he’s up for re-election in 19 months and it’s not going to be Pelosi, Emanuel, et al. who are going to be voting for him.
In fairness, Keith’s a co-sponsor of both binding and non-minding House bills against escalation and for evacuation—and, as of March 1, among the 56 co-sponsors of Rep. Walter Jones’ binding HR 14 prohibiting “the use of military force by the U.S. against Iran.â€
The least he can do to get back into good graces if the Senate doesn’t pass a similar supplementary bill with a timeline or Bush vetoes it, is to “hard-lobby†to get one of those deployment bills out of the House Foreign Affairs committee f( Lee’s HR 770, Woolsey’s HR 508, or Murtha’s HJR 18) for a House vote.
If he’s really looking for redemption from Minnesotans who trusted his words, tell him to hopper an impeachment bill either by himself or with Dennis Kucinich on Bush & Cheney. Remind him that Senator Chuck Hagel, under the Jefferson rules, might well call for that impeachment and to have it done by a Republican would stain the Dems for years. Get tough with Keith. Now.
St. Louis Park Barbara
The way I see it and I might be wrong but it seems like the
bill is saying it depends on the Iragi Government being able
to take care of business without our help. If this is not
possible, will we still have the troops withdraw comes
September? I hope the Senate realizes and adds to it if the
Iragi Government is not ready to stand on it’s own, the withdraw will go on as planned.
Ellison has lied to us and sold out the Peace communities.
The big, important question is, what will the Peace and Justice communities do. Will they become as craven and cowardly as the Democratic Party leadership?
Who is a terrorist?
Bush is a terrorist
Who is a terrorist?
Pelosi is a terrorist.
Prove that the Republicans are chickenhawks but
the Democrats are chickenshits.
Seriously; Can we, an individual, an organization, or some sort of “class action”, file a suit against congress for not doing their job? Truly…they are witnessing abuses of power, breaches of the Constitution, violations of our bill of rights, refusal to disclose and cooperate, retaliation against “whistle blowers”, etc., etc., and they are not performing their most basic duty to uphold, protect and honor the Constitiution.
What do you all think?
I doubt Bush will invade Iran since he really doesn’t have the troops do much of anything. What he will do is launch air and missile attacks on Iran. Which could result in Iran and perhaps Syria launching attacks on our poor troops which result many more wasted lives of American soldiers.
I sent an E-Mail to Mr. Ellison the day before the vote and urged him to vote “no”. I asked him to follow his conscience, because this is not a time for compromise. An illegal and immoral war cannot be funded, for any reason. I am disheartened that our congress cannot find the courage and the integrity to stand up for something so simple and clear. Where is the humanity?
I agree with what Charley Underwood said, below, in his “apology” for Ellison’s vote on the supplemental.
Most of you know that I was a strong supporter of Keith Ellison in his
CD5 campaign for the U.S. House. Like many in the Minnesota peace
community, I spent countless hours doing phone calls and door-knocking to elect Keith, believing that he would do what Martin Sabo would not: use his office to vote against future funding of the tragic war in Iraq.
Keith was a reliable peace candidate, it seemed. He had been there for
years at the marches and rallies and meetings. He had formally taken
the Peace First pledge to vote for no further occupation funding. Even
last Sunday as he appeared as the principal speaker in the march of
thousands on the 4th anniversary of the war, we knew that he was one of us. During the last year, we responded to his consistently anti-war message by
providing the very backbone of his campaign; it is unlikely that he would have
been elected without the deep and generous support of the peace community.
So we trusted Keith to keep the most central promise of his campaign:
to vote to de-fund this evil war. We trusted him, but we were mistaken.
On Friday, he voted for $124 billion of additional Iraq war funding plus
minor restrictions on troop treatment and a timetable that takes the war
right up until September 2008.
To those who responded to my own appeals for your time and energies, I
offer my sincere apology. It was never my intention to mislead you. My own
loyalty is to peace, so it dismays me to think that some of you may
have been duped by my recommendations.
I maintain a large reservoir of love and respect for Keith Ellison. I do not believe that he was corrupted or that he somehow sold out. My guess is
that he has been duped into thinking that the Pelosi bill was actually the
most direct possible path to peace in Iraq, whereas I personally believe
that it is a shameful tactic of the beltway Democratic leadership to continue
the war until the 2008 elections, in order for Bush to drag his party down
in electoral defeat. Sadly, many more will suffer and die due to these
craven manipulations, and the world next year will certainly become a more
dangerous place.
Eventually, I believe, Keith himself will understand this. Eventually,
I think he will come to realize that he has made a huge mistake.
So how should we understand all those hours we spent on a campaign that
resulted in the same vote that Sabo would have made? At one level, the
time was wasted. On another level, the cause of peace has actually been
weakened by yet another failure to influence our national leadership. It¹s
discouraging.
Sadly, there are no guarantees in life. Some of us march in the
streets. Some write poetry. Some write anti-war plays or paint art cars or
commit civil disobedience or teach students. Some of us try to get peace
candidates elected. Some of us pray. We cannot know which effort will
bring us peace. We are doomed to failure until we finally succeed.
Let us not judge others nor ourselves too harshly. Our effort was
worthy. Let us learn from our mistakes and let us be faithful to our vision for a better world.
We were not wrong to support Keith Ellison for Congress. Like each of
us, he is only a human being, flawed and sometimes weak and certainly quite
capable of error. We must each continue to seek the tasks that seem
right and honorable. And if we supported a candidate who disappoints us, let
us simply admit the failure and seek another way.
The issue of how anti-war progressives should react to the Iraq Supplemental bill under discussion was addressed by a recent TrueMajority Action e-mail from Matt Holland. I wrote:
Hi Matt,
You ask:
“Should TrueMajority join in a public campaign to hold these pro-war lawmakers accountable, even if it means partnering with people who fought to approve the war funding bill?
In my view, the question is misstated since any bill that includes a mandatory withdrawal clause of any sort will be vetoed by Bush and until a veto-proof majority exists in the House (unlikely in the extreme – barring some kind of major disaster with our troops in Iraq) all are merely futile exercises in rhetoric.
I feel the question should be:
“In view of the facts of the political process, which preclude a legislated end to the war in Iraq while Bush & Cheney are in power, what should TrueMajority’s course be?”
From that viewpoint, there is only one course. Fight for impeachment. That, too, may be a loosing battle but considering the continuing accumulation of Bush/Cheney offenses against the Constitution, federal crimes, and unpopular actions, it may be easier to get a majority of Congresspeople to agree on articles of impeachment and have the Senate convict than it will be to try to over-ride presidential vetoes. If, however, impeachment were successful it would be far easier to have a legislated end to the war signed into law by President Pelosi.
Consequently, tilting at windmills though it may be, I hold with demanding an outright ‘end the war’ bill which, at the very least, puts supporters & detractors on record unambivalently. In the meantime, we should continue to pressure our lawmakers to investigate the hell out of the Bush regime, get the dirt, hope that people of conscience (that does not, necessarily exclude all Republicans and many Democrats) are sufficiently sickened at the revelations to also push for impeachment.
Regarding Ellison’s vote: It’s naive to elect politicians and then expect them to behave as something else. After all, “Politics is the art of the possible”, it’s not about absolutes.
Being against the Iraq war means voting NAY to keep funding the war, but Keith’s YEA vote means the war will continue and now “he bought it”, it belongs to him, like it or not. Keith was supporting impeachment until he got elected, now he avoids the subject, claiming other issues are more pressing, and he’s “still learning where the bathrooms are”! Guess that convenient excuse satisfies his conscience for now.
Candidate Ellison was for impeachment.
Representative Ellison is for impeachment later.
Candidate Ellison was for peace.
Representative Ellison is for peace later.
Perhaps we should look into recalling this two-faced politician sooner than later.
Semper pacificus,
Dan Fearn
[The following e-mail was received by IFP]:
Compromise is good when it doesn’t kill real people. Keith rolled over and played dead on this one just like the Democrat leadership. Maybe he should lead the charge to replace the Speaker and the rest of the wimps leading the “majority” party that is acting like the minority party.
Gregg Harcus
Eden Prairie, MN 55347
Proud member of Veterans for Peace and strong opponent to the war crimes in Iraq.
The sooner we get our troops out of the mid east then the less likely the Bush regime will use those troops to invade Iran. The better move to get those troops home is to push for impeachment on a sooner timetable than the withdrawl dictates. Get Bush out of the war first and the other issues will fall into place.