Kirsten Gillibrand, the excellent-in-every-way Democrat who represents NY-20, held another one of her Congress at Your Corner events at the Golden Harvest farm stand on Route 9 in Kinderhook today.
Gillibrand is one of the hardest-working Members of Congress ever; the afternoon meet-and-greet-consituents event was her third event of the day.
She talked to about 50 people about a wide range of issues, from energy independence to milk price supports, from the U.S. attorneys scandal to the deleterious impact of No Child Left Behind on local school districts, from health insurance to the war.
And what she said about the war is worth a diary.
Why, below.
I was not taking notes or recording, but she clearly said that the House Democrats are not going to roll over in the face of Bush's expected veto of the Iraq War supplemental.
She explained that the two essential parts of the supplemental are that troops sent to Iraq must be fully trained and equipped, and that there must be benchmarks for the eventual withdrawal of our troops from the Iraqi civil war we have instigated and are now in the middle of.
And she said that the House Democrats will continue to insist on both of these essentials.
Granted, Gillibrand is a freshman, and may not be privy to leadership strategy on this important issue, that was the subject of most of the questions from her constituents today.
None of which, in a very Republican county, evinced any support for the Bush/Cheney war on Iraq.
And Gillibrand did not say this on "Meet the Press" or some other Sunday TV chat show (that will come, because she is intelligent, articulate and attractive).
So you would not have heard about it, except here.
Gillibrand does not make stuff up; and her statement that the House Democrats won't back down to 28-percent-popular Bush on Iraq, even as the Republican-allied media machine tries to red-bait members of Congress and senators who are representing the vast majority of voters, is both plausible, and important.