As these things go in Washington, BE THE MEDIA sometimes actually works. Tina Richards, a military mom, met up with Congressman Dave Obey in the hallways of Congress last week, and a frustrating conversation ensued.
The video has taken off, and Cong. Obey apologized on Friday. Tina Richards, meanwhile, finds herself a media star. She just finished an MSNBC interview, is off to NPR for an interview that will run tomorrow morning, and then it's off to Hardball for a live interview for tonight.
On the video, both Richards' pain and Obey's frustrations are easy to see. In the Hill article, Obey says:
"So many of these liberal groups don’t adequately inform their members. They don’t have the full story about what we’re trying to do and they wind up not being able to distinguish their friend from their enemy. These people won’t take yes for an answer."
He said he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Reps. John Murtha (D-Pa.) have been spending "night and day" trying to figure out a way of the war in Iraq. Instead of trying to help them in the task, the members of liberal groups are viewing them as the enemy rather than their friends, Obey said.
"When you have misinformation or lack of information put into their head’s, it’s a disservice to them and to me," Obey said. "I respect their views. But I would hope they would also respect mine and others on the Hill who are working so hard to find a way out of this."
Obey’s proposed supplemental bill, entitled the "U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act," expands funding for veterans’ health care and hospitals and stipulates that the Bush administration must meet standards of troop readiness before deployment to Iraq. It also states that the Iraqi government must meet Bush’s benchmarks for reform in order for our troops to remain in the region. The legislation sets a deadline for complete withdrawal from Iraq by Sept. 8, 2008, but also states that troops would be withdrawn earlier if Iraqi government fails to satisfy Bush’s benchmarks.
Obey went on to stress his opposition to the war, that he voted against it from the very beginning and that he was the first member of Congress to call for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation. He said the supplemental bill provides greater resources to the very veterans the woman was expressing concern about.
"If the president wants this funding, he has to accept a timeline for an orderly ending of this war," he said.
"I hate this war," he continued "It’s the worst foreign policy disaster in my life time. It’s extremely frustrating when you see groups that cannot be united because they don’t agree with each other on the timeline or they don’t agree 100 percent."
At the end of the interview Obey again said he was sorry about his outburst then cut off questions, saying he needed to get to a hearing.
"I’m sorry that the frustration happened to erupt in that hall," he said. "I wish it hadn’t. If these groups would inform people before they hit the Hill...we might have a better chance to have the votes to end this thing."
And yet, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, at Busboys and Poets last evening, lamented the level of compromise in which the House leadership is engaged. Waters said that Rep. Barbara Lee has offered an amendment to the supplemental bill that requires an earlier exit date and devotes money to getting out of Iraq, not funding any more war efforts. Lee has to take this amendment before the Rules Committee and the leadership is not supportive.
Rep. Waters also reported that two members of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Jerrold Nadler and Maurice Hinchey, agreed yesterday to vote for the supplemental.
The struggle between fixing it now and the incremental approach of the leadership is deeply painful to many of us in the peace and justice movement. Tina Richards is here in DC telling her story and she is unequivocal--no more funds for this war; no way, no how.
I am searingly reminded of a moment during the Vietnam War when a group of us went into some corporations with a slideshow about the effects of the weapons those corporations were creating on the lives of people in Southeast Asia. The pain in Dave Obey's voice was reminiscent of the averted gaze and quiet sense of desperation that I recall from those who saw that slideshow and who could no longer avoid the sense of helplessness and guilt over their failure to stop tragedy.
We have come full circle, we have met the enemy, and in the words of Pogo, he is US.
Come to Washington. Speak your truth to those who need to hear it, no matter what you think is right here. They struggle too; these lawmakers torn between effectiveness and expediency, morality and political process. But they work for the people and the people who voted against this war in November are not calling, not writing, and not showing up to tell their Representatives what needs to happen.
We can all learn from each other, but only if we show up. Please show up.