As just appeared on the front page, the US Senate voted today to approve CAFTA. This in itself is a problem. But worse, the following Democrats voted for this bill. They are:
- Bingaman (D-NM)
- Cantwell (D-WA)
- Carper (D-DE)
- Feinstein (D-CA)
- Jeffords (I-VT)
- Lincoln (D-AR)
- Murray (D-WA)
- Nelson (D-FL)
- Nelson (D-NE)
- Pryor (D-AR)
- Wyden (D-OR)
What do we do about this?
More below the fold.
So what do we do?
Well, with today's Senate vote, we lost a battle. But the war will be in the House. And there we can win.
But to win, we need to stop Democrats from crossing over to support CAFTA. One of the best ways to do this is to make our Reps in Congress worried about their support if they vote with the lobbyists who send them checks, and not for the consituents they obstensively represent.
So it's important that the Senators above see some bad consequences for this vote. Here in California, the best way to do this is to run a progressive Democrat in the 2006 Senate primary, and that DiFi feel the heat.
We can't afford to allow a Republican to take her seat. But we can cause her enough pain so that she will be forced to move left. And we can send an unambigous message to those Democrats who might consider supporting the big corporations over the interests of working people in California and elsewhere.
So: is anyone currently considering challenging Feinstein in '06? And if there isn't, who can we find that would be willing to do this?