The response to Thursday's dairy, My Meeting w/Nancy Pelosi's Deputy District Director, was great. I'd like to thank all of those who recommended and commented on that diary.
In reply to my Open Thread comment 30 seconds on the rec list, lisastar asked if I could do a condensed version, pulling the essential points from that diary. As a Cliff's Notes version of Thursday's diary, I think I've been able to cut it to about half the length while retaining the essential action points and adding a detail and a couple of links.
In this revised diary, I am leaving out the bulk of the reference links in favor of keeping it as brief and to the point as possible. For the longer, more detailed narrative, more context and resource links, please see Thursday’s diary.
Brief Summary
On Tuesday, August 14th, I spent about thirty minutes speaking with Nancy Pelosi’s Deputy District Director, Melanie. We spoke mainly about impeachment, and I was impressed with how open she was to my message. While as we know, Speaker Pelosi does not yet believe impeachment is necessary, Melanie did make a point of bringing up that Speaker Pelosi had been quoted in the news saying that if she weren't Speaker, she would probably be pressing for impeachment herself. As Speaker, and I believe with the rest of the Democratic leadership, Pelosi genuinely feels that the best route for the country and the best way to uphold her oath of office to the Constitution is to move legislation forward and continue with oversight hearings to hold the administrator accountable. The biggest surprise I had from the meeting was that the Speaker did not perceive herself to be standing in the way of impeachment by taking it of the table. I feel this and the view that passing legislation and holding oversight hearings are sufficient are part of a Washington bubble. I do feel that it is possible to breach that bubble, but we need to be informed and remain persistent. In asking Melanie specifically what it would take to get impeachment investigations going, she replied that having 100 representatives sign on to an impeachment resolution would be sufficient.
To Do
I came away from my meeting with Melanie with three clear To Do items.
- ID Targets
- Evaluate & Critique claimed success and failures
- Recruit & Mobilize
ID Targets
I was given a clear goal, 100, of representatives needed to sign on to impeachment for an impeachment hearing to move forward. We need to go out and find those representatives. Call, write, and set up appointments with your representative during this recess. Find out where he or she stands on the question of impeachment. Have they already signed on to H. Res. 333? Ask how we can help them get more of their colleagues on board. Are they on the fence, but persuadable? What information or arguments to they need to be persuaded? Are they opposed to Bush and Cheney, but not in favor of impeachment? Find out what it would take to change their mind. Don't give up. EmilyD was influential in getting Ellen Tauscher to change her position with regard to impeaching Gonzales. Whether your rep has a (D), an (R), or an (I) following their name, we need to establish who are most likely persuadable. I think we especially need to find moderate Republican targets who are persuadable.
Contact your CongressCritter (House)
Find your representatives contact info at Congress.org or via the House Directory (less user friendly in my opinion).
In yesterday’s comments, buhdydharma suggested starting with the Progressive Caucus, some of whom have already signed on to H. Res. 333. Those that have already signed on are in bold on the list below.
Lynn Woolsey (CA-6)
Barbara Lee (CA-9)
Diane Watson (CA-33)
Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5)
Hilda Solis (CA-32)
Mazie Hirono (HI-2)
Phil Hare (IL-17)
Neil Abercrombie (HI-1)
Tammy Baldwin (WI-2)
Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Madeleine Bordallo (GU)
Robert Brady (PA-1)
Corrine Brown (FL-3)
Michael Capuano (MA-8)
Julia Carson (IN-7)
Donna Christensen (VI)
Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
William "Lacy" Clay (MO-1)
Steve Cohen (TN-9)
John Conyers (MI-14)
Elijah Cummings (MD-7)
Danny Davis (TN-1)
Peter DeFazio (OR-4) | Rosa DeLauro (CT-3)
Keith Ellison (MN-5)
Sam Farr (CA-17)
Chaka Fattah (PA-2)
Bob Filner (CA-51)
Barney Frank (MA-4)
Luis Gutierrez (IL-4)
John Hall (NY-19)
Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Michael Honda (CA-15)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2)
Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)
Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Tom Lantos (CA-12)
John Lewis (CA-41)
David Loebsack (IA-2)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-4)
Ed Markey (MA-7)
Jim McDermott (WA-7) | James McGovern (MA-3)
George Miller (CA-7)
Gwen Moore (WI-4)
Jerrold Nadler (KS-1)
Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC)
John Olver (MA-1)
Ed Pastor (AZ-4)
Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Bobby Rush (IL-4)
Linda Sanchez (CA-39)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)
Jose Serrano (NY-16)
Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Pete Stark (CA-13)
Bennie Thompson (MS-2)
John Tierney (MA-6)
Tom Udall (CO-2)
Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Mel Watt (NC-12)
Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Peter Welch (VT) |
Other H. Res. 333 Co-Sponsors
James Moran (VA-8), Russell Wynn (MD-4)
Evaluate & Critique
The Democratic leadership believes their legislative agenda will make genuine progress for the country. We need to evaluate and critique the claimed successes and failures of the 110th Congress. We need to understand the strengths and limitations of these claims in a way that we can easily convey to other voters, and also to representatives who come to us with arguments against impeachment based on "successes" talking points. I think we need to look at the first 100 hours and the first 100 days, and honestly evaluate the consequences of legislation that has passed, failed, and/or been vetoed. Thursday's diary has several links to the legislative agenda in it's Evaluate & Critique section. With this information, we will have another tool to breach the Washington bubble.
Recruit & Mobilize
We need to recruit. Join one of the Enough protests taking place every Sunday across the country, or start one of your own. Participate in Orange Fridays. Join a demonstrations September 15th and September 21st.
It doesn't matter if you're alone to begin with. You can read up on the Enough campaign in the diaries here. Several DailyKos members, including yours truly, have gone out on their own.
Enough: Going Solo
Diarists talk about protesting alone
How was your "Enough!" rally? by Nancy in LA
Todays Enough Protest Week Two by Wino
Todays ENOUGH Protest Week three by Wino
Todays Enough protest week four by Wino
Enough SF - Solo Edition by forbodyandmind (me)
and a few more soloists from comments: KayCeSF, donjo, DonnaZ, and ljm.
Organizing Resources
When we talk to our representatives or even when we're protesting and recruiting, we should be organized and informed. Here’s how I organized the binder that I left for Speaker Pelosi. For specifics on the contents see Thursday’s Resources section.
The Binder Contents
- DailyKos Diaries
- Editorial Cartoons
- Prominent Impeachment Articles/Columns
- Impeachment Resolutions List
- Impeachment FAQs
I've put other thoughts about getting organized in a previous diary here.
What's at Stake
Vice President Cheney has been at the heart of the worst abuses of this administration: the generation of false and misleading evidence to promote the Iraq war, the outing a covert CIA agent as political retaliation against someone who publicly contradicted the administration war narrative, the mismanagement and absolute failure to plan for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, the extreme levels of secrecy of the administration (for example, the secret energy commission), warrantless wiretapping (see drational and Kagro X for stories implicating the VP and President), and most recently the relentless beating of the war drums toward Iran.
For the past several months, at least, the Bush/Cheney administration has been gradually ratcheting up the rhetoric with regard to Iran. From what media coverage there is, it seems that Cheney is the one pressing this case.
See:
BREAKING: Hi ho hi ho it's off to Iran we go by jkb246
The Washington Note, May 24th
Cheney Attempting to Constrain Bush's Choices on Iran... by Steven Clemons
The New York Times, June 2nd
Rice Plays Down Hawkish Talk About Iran by Helene Cooper
Why the hell the administration is so determined to energize and empower terrorists is completely beyond me. What would happen with China and Russia in the event of any attack on Iran? Aside from cementing their abuses in place if they are not called to account, the Bush/Cheney administration, led by Cheney and his minions certainly seem to be doing everything they can to set the table for WWIII. It's time to set a different table.
[update]rrheard posted a diary discussing Iran right after this diary went up.