Yesterday thereisnospoon wrote a recommended diary entitled And the GOP Backlash Begins. It listed the Republican congressmen who were speaking out against the President’s desire to escalate the war in Iraq. One of those mentioned was Florida Congressional District 8 Representative Ric Keller.
Floridians need to act on this information. More below.
One of the Miami Herald’s blogs reported it this way:
Orlando area Rep. Ric Keller, a generally reliable Republican voice, took to the House floor today to register his opposition to President Bush's plan for a troop "surge." Saying he believed the president's motives were "pure and well meaning," Keller said he would have agreed with him three years ago.
"However, at this late stage, interjecting more young American troops into the crossfire of an Iraqi civil war is simply not the right approach," Keller said. "We're not going to solve an Iraqi political problem with an American military solution." [full speech here]
In the comments section of thereisnospoon’s diary Idioteque had this to say:
I never thought I'd hear Keller say that. It's amazing what effect almost getting his ass kicked out of Congress by Charlie Stuart had on him.
There are several things I would like to ask fellow kossacks to do. Here is a picture of the district that Keller represents in central Florida.
If you live in this district send an email to him thanking him for opposing the surge. If you know someone who lives in the district please contact them about doing this. It would be particularly good if you could say something like "I didn’t vote for you, but I’m glad to see you respecting the will of the people on this matter."
If you blog in Florida please write on this subject with the title Florida Republican Abandons Bush or something similar. The goal for this activity is to continue to promote a rift in the State Republican Party and further alienate the radical wing of the Republican party from the general public. Both of which are worthwhile strategic goals for the Florida 2008 presidential election.
As dmsilev (my hero) put it in a comment from spoon’s diary:
Thank you, GOP base!
The Republican Presidential candidates are caught in a nasty dilemma. If they repudiate Dear Leader, the 30% who still worship at his feet will Not Be Pleased. And since that 30% strongly overlaps with the Republican primary voters, Not Pleased worshippers means pissed off primary voters. So, they can't repudiate Dear Leader.
But, if they don't repudiate Dear Leader, they look like frothing warmongers to the remaining 3/4s of the country, and torpedo themselves in the general election. Live by the cult, die by the cult.
But, like some in the comment section said, I don’t want to make political points on the lives of heroic young men and women. Tiekanefir did point out this possibility:
This could potentially turn out to be great news for the troops. Public opinion is violently against the 'surge' idea, and the Democrats may now be able to pull the plug on funding and force the war to a conclusion. It's far from a sure thing, but if Bush hadn't opened his stupid mouth and bloviated about sending 20,000 more people over there, I don't think we would even have an opening, and now we do.
My biggest hope is that this IS their attempt at 'strategery'--make Congress force their hand, pull out, and blame the resultant chaos on the Democrats for making them leave too quickly. If it ends this war, I'll take it.
But I would like to get behind a more direct approach. This is from Tuba Les:
On my way to my office this afternoon, I saw a large group of people standing on the sidewalk holding up signs. Of course, I was curious what they were protesting. Well, imagine my surprise, they were holding up signs saying "No Surge in Iraq" and "No Escalation of War". It looked like they were getting positive responses from the people in cars passing by, and this is in Riverside, CA a very red part of California.
HONK!!!
And dengre posted these photos from a demonstration in front of the White House.
Also mentioned was this:
I'm sure there will be many other gatherings in Washington to end this madness.
A March is called for 1-27-07.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Turning Florida Blue