I wish they all could be California girls...
Katrina Vanden Heuvel: The Triad (Lee/Woolsey/Waters)
Posted by marmar in Editorials & Other Articles
Thu Jan 18th 2007, 04:53 PM
from The Nation:
BLOG | Posted 01/18/2007 @ 10:46am
The Triad
Last Sunday, at the Riverside Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once eloquently opposed the Vietnam War, Presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards urged Congress to deny funding to President Bush's escalation in Iraq: "If you're in Congress and you know this war is going in the wrong direction, it is no longer enough to study your options and keep your own counsel. Speak out, and stop this escalation now. You have the power to prohibit the president from spending any money to escalate the war – use it."
Yesterday, on Capitol Hill, three Congresswomen not only spoke out powerfully on the issue of escalation, but also – with characteristic leadership, courage and determination – laid out a principled alternative to the Bush Way Forward into continuing human catastrophe. And, at this critical moment, it offers all citizens who care about peace the opportunity to rally around a single, rational proposal for withdrawal.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey stood with fellow Congressional Progressive Caucus co-Chair, Rep. Barbara Lee, and the Chair of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Rep. Maxine Waters, to introduce the Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act.
"We are a triad to be dealt with," Rep. Woolsey said. "And we will be heard from."
The three Representatives outlined the first bill to comprehensively lay out the cost and framework for a withdrawal from Iraq. It calls for bringing the troops home within six months of enactment and describes in detail US involvement to help stabilize Iraq following withdrawal. It accelerates the training of a permanent Iraqi security force during the six month transition and provides funding as necessary to ensure the safety of the troops and contractors during withdrawal. It also authorizes – if requested by the Iraqi government – US support for an international stabilization force. Finally, it guarantees full health care funding – including mental health benefits – as our veterans deserve. And it does all of this for pennies on the dollar compared to continuing the occupation which is draining the nation of needed resources. ....(more)
The complete column is at: thenation.com.
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Woolsey's war fight gaining strength
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
She may still be more of a moral sentinel than a congressional mover and shaker, but Rep. Lynn Woolsey's stature seems larger now that the American public has turned against the war in Iraq.
www1.pressdemocrat.com
The Petaluma Democrat on Wednesday capped five years of opposition to the Iraq war, introducing a multi-pronged plan to bring U.S. troops home in six months and to support Iraq's long-term stability.
Some analysts say the bill has little chance of success but acknowledge Woolsey's anti-war voice is now a voter-validated progressive message and no longer the obscure sentiments of a back-bench lawmaker.
For Woolsey, 69, starting her 15th year in Congress, it feels like vindication: "Two years ago I was being vilified for my stand (against the war). The country finally caught up with me."
Woolsey's news conference with two other California Democratic representatives drew about 20 reporters and TV cameras - a turnout she called "hugely different" from what she was accustomed when delivering her anti-war messages.
Initially endorsed by 16 co-sponsors, her bill "gives Congress the vehicle they can use if they choose to leave Iraq," Woolsey said in an interview.
Whether a majority of her colleagues goes along for the ride remains to be seen. Capitol Hill is bristling with opposition to President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, but no Democratic leaders are demanding withdrawal.
Two years ago, Woolsey introduced a resolution calling for an "immediate withdrawal" of troops from Iraq. It gained 34 co-sponsors but ultimately was crushed by a vote of nearly 3-to-1.
It was not an embarrassment, Woolsey said, calling it "the only clear vote" Congress has held on the war.
Since then, the November election and sagging public support for the war have "changed the political landscape," said Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican Party official.
Woolsey's track record gives her "a certain amount of seniority in the anti-war movement" within Congress, he said.
"Last year, she could make a point," Pitney said. "This year, she can make a law."
Barbara O'Connor, a Sacramento State University political science professor, said Woolsey's position is still more symbolic than substantive.
Her bill is unlikely to get out of committee, and there is no mainstream congressional demand for a six-month withdrawal, O'Connor said.
Instead, Woolsey and others are prodding the party from the far left corner.
"They know they are fanning the flames but not really generating public policy," O'Connor said.
Seventy percent of 10 Americans said Bush has no clear plan to succeed in Iraq, but a virtually equal number, 68 percent, said congressional Democrats don't have one either, according to a Pew Research Center poll taken after Bush's announced plan to send more troops to Iraq.
The public is equally split over the idea of bringing U.S. troops home as soon as possible, 48 percent went them home fast, while 46 percent said troops should remain until Iraq is stabilized.
Political analysts give Woolsey credit for being "ahead of the curve" on Iraq while noting her decidedly liberal North Bay district made it a risk-free proposition.
In November, as Democrats took over both houses of Congress, Woolsey won her eighth term with more than 70 percent of the vote. A former welfare mother who founded her own personnel agency, Woolsey made a surprising leap from the Petaluma City Council to Congress in 1992 and has aligned herself with liberal issues, typically on education, labor and the environment.
As far back as 2002, she said the Iraq war was wrong. She began making five-minute anti-war speeches in a nearly empty House chamber in April 2005 and has delivered 178 of them since.
Critics said her call for abrupt withdrawal lacked detail. Woolsey said her new bill spells out a plan, and is not a switch in her position.
"Heck, no," she said. "I've just put teeth in it."
Woolsey lost credibility in some circles with her strident anti-war stance, said Rachel Binah, a Democratic National Committee member from Little River in Mendocino County.
"It was very brave of her," Binah said. "I admire her persistence and clarity on the issues."
The North Coast's other House member, Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, has expressed a more moderate but equally firm opposition to the war, Binah said.
Woolsey, on politically greener ground, was free to rip Bush and the war, Binah said. "And that's a good thing. It really counts now because the whole country is seeing it her way."
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