Posted on 09/09/2007 5:49:44 PM PDT by RWR8189
A well-known antiwar leader has gone public with the transcript of a private conference call that shows peace activists are exasperated with the Democratic congressional leadership and at a loss for a long-term strategy.
The Aug. 29 call highlights divisions in the Democratic Party that Republicans are gearing up to try to exploit as Congress debates its response to the report on Iraq this week by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
On Monday, the pair begins two days of testimony on Capitol Hill.
Republicans say the call reflects the degree to which war opponents have failed to gain the advantage that many in both parties thought would build over the summer.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, posted the transcript Friday on the Web site of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, of which he is a co-chair.
The transcript reveals that opponents of the war in Iraq have decided to first try to enlist conservative Democrats, before moving on moderate Republicans. The call shows they are having little success because of fears about the impact on next year’s elections if the party is seen as defeatist.
The call, which Lerner titled “Strategizing with leaders of the Anti-War Movement,” included two sympathetic members of Congress and representatives of groups ranging from Code Pink to the Progressive Democrats of America.
Lerner -- who is based in Berkeley, Calif., and is a leader of what he calls “the religious left” -- told Politico in a phone interview on Sunday that he concluded from the call that the antiwar movement does not have a long-term strategy, even though the war “is going to continue through the end of President Bush’s administration” and perhaps into the term of the next president.
Lerner said he posted the transcript in an effort to persuade war opponents that they need “some fundamentally new thinking.”
“Right now, we could write the story of this Congress as ‘Profiles in Cowardice,’” Lerner said. “There’s a great deal of frustration with the Democrats in the Congress – a sense almost of betrayal. The Democrats don’t have – and even the people in the antiwar movement don’t have – a coherent alternative worldview from which to base a strategy. That’s why they end up debating everything on the same terms that the Republicans do.”
Lerner, 64, said he is on the Orthodox side of the Jewish Renewal Movement; he gained a measure of fame early in the Clinton administration when then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton quoted his phrase “politics of meaning” in speeches. Lerner said the transcript was prepared by his staff and that he is certain it is accurate.
Republicans are circulating the link to the transcript and think it makes their case that opponents of the war in Iraq are losing ground. “This call shows the tables may have turned,” said one Republican official.
“It shows the tightrope Democrats have to walk with an angry group of liberal organizers who are sensing defeat.”
The transcript quotes Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), who is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as saying: “The people that need to hear are the moderate Democrats who are holding up the whole thing. They’re the ones who have to know that their people care, that they [want to] bring our troops home. They swear they don’t. They swear that they’ll lose their elections if they do the right thing.”
When one peace organizer talks about “peeling away Republican support for the war,” Woolsey interjects: “Maybe you folks should go after the Democrats.”
Chris Shields, Woolsey's press secretary, said in reply: “As a leader of the anti-war movement, the Congresswoman is committed to working with outside groups, her colleagues in the House, and her party's leadership to bring our troops home to their families in a safe and orderly manner."
During the call, Woolsey advises the activists: “Help people change the conversation from ‘abandoning the troops’ to funding orderly redeployment. I’m telling you, that’s going to take six months to a year. … Progressives know that whether we spend money on this or not is going to make the difference. That’s all the House can really do, the budget part of it.”
The activists express discontent with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). At one point, Woolsey, who represents Marin and Sonoma counties, is quoted as saying: “I believe that Nancy is with us, and she’s counting on you guys, ... and me to push from the Left in the Congress.”
Lerner, in the interview with Politico, was not sympathetic. “We’re not that concerned about what’s going on in her heart,” he said. “We’re trying to end the war and in that, she does not seem to be very much with us – is not willing to take any serious political risk.”
Jennifer Crider, a Pelosi aide who is communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in response: “We understand their frustration. Democrats are frustrated more Republicans won't listen to their constituents and join our fight to end the war.”
The other lawmaker on the call, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), defends Pelosi. “The speaker doesn’t have the votes,” he said. “If you see what has happened in the Democratic Caucus, I don’t think you’d be quite as critical of the speaker. She really is trying. … We cobbled together a majority by winning in a lot of seats that tend to be conservative: in the South, in the rural Midwest, and so on. These members are very much afraid that if they get to far out front, they’re going to lose their seat, and they’re being advised to not take risks so we can sustain this majority.”
“You know, it’s a calculated decision, and it’s a difficult one,” Moran added. “I think I know where Nancy is in her heart, and I think she is where we are. But she’s in a leadership position now: She needs to represent more than her immediate constituency; she’s got to represent the Democratic Party, and there’s a whole lot of Democrats that are far more reluctant to challenge this president and to make waves.”
Moran talks about finding cracks in Republican support. “Just as we have Democrats in conservative Republican seats, they’ve got more Republicans in what have become Democratic seats,” he said.
“We’ve got to target them. They’re going to have to choose between their loyalty to their constituency versus their president. Their president is on his way out, and when you talk to them privately, their share a lot more misgivings then they express publicly, and I think we need to tap into those misgivings."
Lerner said he plans to hold a similar call “after the Congressional thing plays out – probably in the middle of October.” He said he is debating who to invite, and is not sure it makes sense to include the members of Congress.
“They’re trying to explain to us why they can’t stop the stop the war,” Lerner said. “I have tremendous respect for these people, and I don’t mean to be sounding too negative about them. But I don’t know if it would be that profitable to have a conversation with people who have this need to protect Nancy.”
Thanks for the ping STARWISE, kristinn’s article is a very good one too. They wheel and deal, by hook or crook.
Wooo Hoo .... listening to the show now. She’s great!!
“Listen Live” is in very small letters at the top.
What time are you on?
Rush will have fun with this tomorrow.
They need a strategy? What’s wrong with the one the advocate for the US? Quit and go home.
That’s why we need to facilitate the anti-war crowd getting the most rabid, loony, delusional left-wingers to run as possible. Use their anti-war insanity to help the Dems lose Congress.
Ping to #22 .. kristinn’s on NOW on that radio show linked above .. approximately 9:26pm et now.
Peace activists who decry the fight with fascists are worse than the fascists themselves in many ways. They become Fascist enablers.
Fascist enablers feel perfectly justified in using the public media to weaken their host societies, and to give aid and comfort to the very enemies of their civilization.
These fascist enablers need to be ridiculed and disempowered, completely and utterly, just as the same was necessary in 1938 in the cases of Joeseph Kennedy , and Charles Lindhberg, both liberal-peace activist, Nazi Ass lickers. Todays Peace Activists have the same smell and sound.
Thats what these little liberal "Peace Activists" are, fascist enablers. A simple remedy of flogging in the tradition of the British Navy would solve their problem , along with a draft notice from the US military service selection board.
Fascism, is insidious. Today it is religio-Islamic Fascism........the profession of faith accompanied by murder of the innocent.Would that these peace activist could transport themselves into a futrure whare Isklamofascism rules the world. I would bet that they would survive there for just a few minutes before losing their heads due to their liberal ideology, literally.It is such ideological blindess and ignorance of history of todays peace activists that I find astounding.
You people CANNOT HIDE WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE.
When you invest in defeat, when you promote it, espouse it, preach it, harp it, and sell your everlovin' soul for it....you are going to get defeated.
No more VietNam redux, you pathetic losers.
“The Democrats don’t have – and even the people in the antiwar movement don’t have – a coherent alternative worldview from which to base a strategy. That’s why they end up debating everything on the same terms that the Republicans do.”
This is a description of children — those who engage in wishful, magical and non-linear thinking — trying to engage in an argument with adults.
Oh yes, he is like every other lying theological liberal. Their whole religious outlook is political. It is what they preach. The MSM let them get away with it. They NEVER call them to the mat on the seperation of church and state. The truth is the church is the STATE.
So much for principle, eh? Couldn’t happen to a nicer party. It’s what they deserve for telling themselves and everyone else that character doesn’t count.
I’ll actually watch the Rat convention if it’s a repeat of what happened in Chicago. The local store wouldn’t have enough popcorn.
There is a question as to whether Lerner is really an ordained/educated “rabbi” or a self-proclaimed ‘street preacher’.
Lerner is to Orthodox Judaism as Adolf Hitler was to Mozart.
He has always been a marxist con-artist, the Jewish equivalent of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton put together.
Started out as an SDS leader and joined the pro-terrorism Seattle Liberation Front in the late 60’s, early 70’s.
He never misses a chance to miss a communist/marxist “united front” protest, even when it is blatantly anti-Semitic.
We have a word for him in Yiddish - It goes like this - SCH*MUCK!
These are the people who want to decide the fate of our country?
Imagine that.
Hello, Mike Allen. Have you sent your donation in to Jim, to help keep the lights on at your source site?
:-)
LOL ...
So it was Lerner who posted it on his website. Talk about acts of desperation, he’s going to be made to pay dearly for this act by the Dem powers-that-be. He won’t be getting the time of day from any them if they can’t rely on his confidence.
I’m more than ever convinced by the time the actual primary comes up the leading dem contenders will be lining up to take turns ritually ass-kicking this bunch to prove their patriotic bona fides. Better far to be their enemy than ally.
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