While he had some help, it appears that John Cornyn's exercise in political farce on the Senate floor turned into a huge moneymaker, though not necessarily in the way Junior John intended.
But it did raise a nice chunk of change.
For Move On.
Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting,"1 our email started to fill up with messages like this one:
I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.YOU ARE OUR voice.
And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000-more than we've raised any day this year-for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.
The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.
That would be half a million dollars raised because Junior John thought going back to demonizing the anti-Iraq war strategery 70% of Americans was a good idea.
Our own Doran Williams has a very special thank you for Junior John.
Thank You, Sen. Cornyn, For Being Such An IncompetentIgnoramus.
All snarkery aside, Texans have bled a lot in this war, and their families have waited in unimaginable anxiety for their loved ones to finally come home.
For Senator Cornyn to not only help kill the very modest Webb bill to allow exhausted warriors equal time at home for that in theatre, but to then sponsor a bill condemning the exercise of free speech in dissent is so mean spirited and venal that it beggars description.
So, I'll let some of the other emails received by Move On speak as to where our priorities as a nation should be regarding the occupation of Iraq:
All day, messages from vets and military family members kept pouring into our email, many of them aimed at the Senate:
I have given a son to this country. My brother, my father, my uncle have all served honorably and bravely. I am a loyal American. I am outraged and sick to death of the tactics this administration uses to try to silence dissent to a war that is unjust, built and maintained on lies, political power, and greed. I was content to let others fight more loudly, but no more.
-Sharyn W., NC
I am a prior soldier who served in Iraq for 13 months, and am now an expecting mom with a husband who is deployed in Baghdad. I don't think I can ever forgive the Bush administration for the lies that tricked America into this war and hurt my family so badly. I am ashamed of those American politicians who would condemn an organization for practicing the Freedom of Speech that so many soldiers have died for.
-Danielle B., OH
As a US Navy veteran and an Iraq war veteran of over a year I want to ask, What has happened to us? What has happened to our voice? Where is this country going with stopping free speech and free press? ... Every time I think of the long nights I had in Anbar remembering what I was fighting for, well here it is....
-Ahmad H., LA
These folks have made sacrifices many of us can't imagine. Their charge to us was clear: keep speaking the truth about how President Bush and the Republicans have betrayed our trust.
Time for Senator Betray Us to go.
Move On speaks for a lot of Americans, and a lot of those live right here in Texas.
You can donate here to keep their work going, and sign the Move On petition here.