http://markandeya.wordpress.co…..-dilemmas/

If we get out of Iraq the insurgents will take heart and may up their efforts to kill the remaining soldiers and many Iraqis, but the longer we remain, the death toll will surely rise as there will be more American targets there to shoot at for a greater length of time.

Congress’ dillemma is thus: If they vote for withdrawal there will surely be the blood of a certain number of Iraqis and American soldiers on their hands, but if they vote to stay or do nothing, then despite the certainty that many more people will die, they will not be the one personally pulling the lever to do so – the president did that and all he has to do is term out, and even then the blame may surely fall onto the shoulders of the new War Czar (anyone heard anything from HIM lately?)

We need to be the ones to collectively *pull the lever* it must be us who give our “leaders* the political cover to do the lever-pulling and signal the necessity to get out of Iraq. We must make our voices unequivocally heard to be telling them exactly what they must do. We cannot leave them with any option, as they will sure as shit choose to act as most people have despite nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, educational background or gender, that when confronted with this same moral dilemma.

We can’t blame them. We must give them permission to to make the hard moral decision.

Call, fax, e-mail. Make your voices heard.

I was excited about Obama – but he has proved himself just another short-sighted politician and it makes me sick.

join the club! There’s a reason he picked Joe Leiberman as mentor when he entered the Senate. He is a neo-conservative, trying on a coat of left/moderate camouflage.

selise @ 109

we have our own set of blinders to remove. thing is, it’s psycholgically painful and induces lots of denial and defensiveness.

very true – I think there’s a lot of psychological projection from left/progressives – we want to beleive we have a champion in the fight … and it’s tough to come to terms with the fact that we don’t.

paradox @ 111

my first broaching of the question that they don’t share the goals of left/progressives much, if at all, was met with a tepid, but true response that (D)’s are harder for lobbyists to buy.

but on the larger issues, stalwart (D) defenders don’t have much to work with, do they?

Christy @ 117

Yep, that’s Henry Waxman all over — a tool for the Republicans. Whew, I feel better just being able to say that out loud. Ahem. (Seriously, do you actually believe that after all the work that Waxman has been doing on war profiteers for YEARS?)

there’s a reduction in there…he doesn’t need to be a tool of the (R)’s no not share the goals of impeachment, ending the war, restoring habeas, etc. It may be that as a creature of the D.C. “village”, as Digby calls it, one just doesn’t think such thinigs.

And you ever notice that he never debates anybody?

Harry Reid? Nancy Pelosi? Barbara Boxer? Richard Durbin? Four lightweights who prove the Peter Principle is alive and well in American politics.

can’t get through to Reid’s office – “all phones are busy”

heh-heh.

I got through immediately two times — once to talk to a real person, another time to leave a voice mail. (I told him the question is no longer “Got milk?” It’s “Got Habeas Corpus?” or “Got Articles of Impeachment?”)

Christy Hardin Smith @ 164

paradox — Well, gee, let’s see. First of all, the Dems have a bare majority in the House, several of whom are not exactly loyal to progressive values (I like to call them the Blue Dog Caucus) for starters. Beyond that, the GOP had six full years to fully screw things up, do no oversight, and essentially allow their cronies to run rampant. Waxman and other committee chairs have had a scant six months to (1) rebuild the entire committee staffing and investigation structure, because it was entirely gutted by the GOP majority to the point that, in Waxman’s case, staffing was almost non-existent for the Government Oversight Committee, so he has had to start from scratch beyond his own office staff who cannot be expected to carry the whole load on their shoulders and do constituent work, too; (2) they have had to whip a disparate group of people, a lot of whom had never been in the majority and had no idea how things could be run any differently from the nasty, vindicitive style that had been the GOP House leadership; and (3) the leadership in the house has to wrestle with a lot of vast egos, on top of trying to wrangle legislation through that scant Democratic majority — a group which is far from lock-step or unified.

In short, while we all may want immediate action, it is unrealistic to think it is going to happen. And that is the truth of it. But what is certain in all of this is the following: either we do the work to push them in the direction we want them to go — and that means calls, letters, personal appointments, showing up at town hall meetings, and so on, or the lobbyists and folks on the other side of the aisle will be the only voices they hear.

And I, for one, am not handing them the floor without a fight.

Thank you, Christy, for that shot in the arm. I needed it! Have called/faxed for an hr., & will do some more later during breaks from work…

I agree. We keep plugging with hope in our hearts. This is a process. Gov. in my view was gutted by the GOP. Now we have a long and thorny ride back. I don’t think it’s such a bad thing that we the citizens have to keep on top of things. I think that’s what was intended by the founding. . . er persons. (Father sounds so gosh-darned patriarchal.)

Democrats have always been painfully slow, political, overly cautious. I gave up on them while Nixon was still in office.
Just called Pelosi and Reid, hoping it does some good…
I completely agree with the post about the 97-0 Iran vote – sadly, that vote tells me everything I need to know about this congress.

What that vote says is that they all tremble at the thought of going against A*P*C: http://thehill.com/leading-the…..05-15.html

I think we do have something to show for our fighting, but not as much as we all would like. Despite all attempts at institutional thievery, the Democrats did win narrow victories in the House and Senate as well as in many state houses. That is a beginning and is a result of the extremely hard work of many, many people, including the proprietors of this blog.

Is change occurring as fast as I would like? NOT EVEN CLOSE. But, we must stand up to weakness and indecision among the Democrats as surely as we do to the lies and corruption that have characterized the Republicans in the past several years.

paradox — Well, gee, let’s see. First of all, the Dems have a bare majority in the House, several of whom are not exactly loyal to progressive values (I like to call them the Blue Dog Caucus) for starters. Beyond that, the GOP had six full years to fully screw things up, do no oversight, and essentially allow their cronies to run rampant. Waxman and other committee chairs have had a scant six months to (1) rebuild the entire committee staffing and investigation structure, because it was entirely gutted by the GOP majority to the point that, in Waxman’s case, staffing was almost non-existent for the Government Oversight Committee, so he has had to start from scratch beyond his own office staff who cannot be expected to carry the whole load on their shoulders and do constituent work, too; (2) they have had to whip a disparate group of people, a lot of whom had never been in the majority and had no idea how things could be run any differently from the nasty, vindicitive style that had been the GOP House leadership; and (3) the leadership in the house has to wrestle with a lot of vast egos, on top of trying to wrangle legislation through that scant Democratic majority — a group which is far from lock-step or unified.

In short, while we all may want immediate action, it is unrealistic to think it is going to happen. And that is the truth of it. But what is certain in all of this is the following: either we do the work to push them in the direction we want them to go — and that means calls, letters, personal appointments, showing up at town hall meetings, and so on, or the lobbyists and folks on the other side of the aisle will be the only voices they hear.

And I, for one, am not handing them the floor without a fight.

Thank you, Christy, for that shot in the arm. I needed it! Have called/faxed for an hr., & will do some more later during breaks from work…