Posted on 04/04/2007 3:43:36 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Last Saturday, March 31, the Progressive Caucus of the DFL held an open meeting to discuss Keith Ellison's vote to continue funding the Iraq war. Of the 40 or so people who came, probably less than half were DFL regulars. Most of the participants were part of a loose coalition of leftists and peace activists that had come together to support Ellison's campaign last fall.
Marie Braun of Women Against Military Madness (and the well of strength that continues to organize the Wednesday afternoon Lake Street Bridge Vigil to End the War), said with a new sense of cynicism in her voice, "Politicians disappoint us." She spoke for most of the peace movement.
For the past month leading up to the House vote on funding for the war, Marie and other members of the peace movement occupied the offices of Congressional Representatives and Senators asking them to vote against the war. Over a month ago, Ellison's office assured these activists that he would vote against further funding. His was the only office that was not targeted. During last fall's election, he had described the peace and justice community as the cornerstone of his campaign. He had taken the Peace First pledge to vote against all further funding for the war.
A moderator for the Progressive Caucus began the discussion last Saturday by asking, "What would you have done if you were part of the Democratic Party leadership?" In many ways this is a legitimate question. There are limited choices. As head of the Congress, Nancy Pelosi has to pass legislation. This means she has to get a majority of Congresspeople to vote with her to get anything done. An overwhelming majority of the American people wants an end to the war in Iraq and the speedy withdrawal of American troops.
But it is not clear whether the Democrats in Congress are in similar agreement. It is essential for Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and all the Democratic presidential candidates to make the Democratic Party look like it's in favor of peace, because that's what's going to get them elected in 2008. She needed a resolution that even the most conservative Democrats could support. Some representatives had to be bought off with special pork; one district even got a subsidy for peanut storage.
Ellison got a trip to the Middle East. In the end, Pelosi was able to pull it off with just a few votes to spare. She even let seven peace activists (John Lewis, Dennis Kucinich, Lynne Woolsley and Barbara Lee--the only person in Congress to vote against the open-ended War on Terror--and others) leak over to the opposition. She demonstrated that she understood the first rule of politics: She knew how to count.
This bill was sold as a way of putting limits on Bush's war in Iraq. It sets a September 2008 deadline for troop withdrawal, or does it? A real deadline would mean the cutoff of funding. The House bill provides $145 billion for the next fiscal year from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, and it provides $50 billion for beyond July 1, 2008 into June 30, 2009.
Further, the bill reaffirms the privatization of Iraqi oil. This puts Congress on record as stating that Halliburton's ownership of Iraqi oil is in the national interest. This means that if the Iraqi people ever got rid of the puppet government that rules their country on behalf of U.S. business interests and demanded their oil back, then the U.S. could claim they were illegally expropriating vital U.S. interests and use this as a pretext for re-invading their country.
Also, the bill continues to fund the expansion of permanent bases in Iraq.
Democrats have been warning that Bush will probably veto the bill. But why would he do that? It gives him everything he wants, and it even says he can "waive those restrictions" and ignore the pullout deadline. If he feels he must say something about the pullout date, then he could issue one of his signing statements where he says he doesn't agree with and won't implement a part of the legislation.
But it often happens that it doesn't matter what you said, it matters what people think you said. When most people heard about the House bill, they thought this was a victory for getting out of Iraq. The Senate immediately got backbone and passed a resolution demanding U.S. troops out of Iraq by March of 2008. There seems to be momentum building.
Bush doesn't want to get out of Iraq because his company, Halliburton (purchased through a stock swap with Dresser Oil--the Bush family company--when Cheney was CEO), will have ownership of the oil and oil drilling equipment. Everybody else has lost in the Iraq war, but Bush has won.
At the Saturday meeting, Marie Braun concluded: "We have to go back to our own work. We have work to do!"
On Sunday, April 15, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis, Keith Ellison will hold a public meeting to discuss his vote on the Iraq War. Everyone is invited.
Somebody forgot to tell them that Muslims WILL lie to you...
How much pork did Keith get?
Evidently, enough to vote for the funding....
Ellison is just playing a game of timing. He will betray the US when it is timely, but cover his ass at other times.
Treason is treason.
LOL, for a moment I thought there really could be a publication called “Puss of the Twin Cities”..... it would be most appropriate.
Yeah, I screwed up the funny. I forgot that there is only one ‘s’ in “PUS”
I didn’t know Bush owned Halliburton.
You learn something new every day!!
Amazin’....Ain’t it??
Oh. An extra “S”? I was thinking more along the lines of a missing “IES”.
It works both ways, but I was going for the single ‘s’ and the visual that goes with it.
*Keef X ping*
Who knows, perhaps a RINO will unseat Ellison in this heavily Rodent stronghold.
Not likely. We ran the respectable Alan Fine, and his performance was a paltry 21%. The MN Independence Party ran another candidate and they also got 21%, so at best, if we could run someone from both, they could only get in the low 40s, which is not bad in that district, but it’s not enough. Keef X is most vulnerable in a rodent primary.
I should amend that. The Independence party nominee was a disgruntled Democrat who promised to caucus with the party if elected, so Fine’s 21% may be about as well as we can do. That’s about a 70% rodent district.
No way. This the most liberal district in the state, although the 4th (St. Paul) and the 8th (Duluth/Iron Range), are also close contenders. Also, the thing that makes Minnesota (along with Wisconsin and Iowa) unusual compared to the rest of the country is that the rural parts of the state are often just as liberal as the cities. Can’t forget the F in DFL! The most conservative part of the state is the Twin Cites suburbs, though the Western suburbs (Edina, Minnetonka, Wayzata, etc.) have some RINO tendencies, as shown by their Congresscritter Jim Ramstad.
I live in the 5th District.
The minute that Ellison won the DFL endorsement in April of ‘06, he was as good as elected - even though he had to win the primary election in September.
Ellison was tremendously helped that three white liberals split the primary vote, allowing him to win the primary with a plurality of the vote. He brought out his core base of blacks, hispanics, anti-war activists and DFL party regulars.
I crossed over and voted in the DFL primary because I knew the only way to get rid of Ellison was in the primary. I voted for Mike Erlandson, the former state party chair. He was a liberal but as a local talk show host said, he was one that you could do business with.
I thought the disgruntled Democrat who got 21% ran as a Green Party candidate, not an Independence Party candidate.
Oh, I know it was Keef’s to lose once he had the nomination. Sadly, the district hasn’t elected a Republican since the distinguished anti-Communist giant Walter Judd in 1960. When Don Fraser beat him after 20 years in Congress in ‘62, it was all downhill from there.
The question is, do the White libs have the guts to unite and take down Mr. X, or will their perpetually guilty consciences be too much of a hindrance to dump a Black Mohammadan ?
No, the Greenie, Jay Pond, was an authentic Greenie. He was the same guy who ran against Pelosi in San Francisco in 2002 (got 6%), then moved to Minneapolis afterwards and got 6% running against Marty Sabo in '04, but only got 2% in this election. Both Alan Fine and Tammy Lee, the Independence candidate, scored almost the exact same number of votes (about 51-52k each), with Fine just narrowly escaping coming in 3rd place (by only 817 votes).
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