Like a lot of people, I just got this email in my inbox. I'm not giving them a damn dime nor dollar.
I doubt anyone reads the inbox at info@johnkerry.com or info@bornfighting.com (my Senator's PAC), so I'm posting the reply I sent here for posterity.
Plus I guess I'm still pissed at Kerry regarding 2004.
I fought for 13 years in the minority to stop Republicans from doing bad things, we broke the bank in 2006 here at the johnkerry.com community to win a majority so we could make good things happen, but still the Republicans are standing in the way.
You already know what's not getting done. You don't need a long explanation of the tricks the Republicans are playing to block action. I'll just tell you that yesterday the Republicans broke the record for filibusters in a Congress, in just the first year of this Congress!
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You don't need another laundry list — you just need a roadmap to changing the Senate. And that starts by changing more Senators. Repeat what you did in 2006. Grow that majority.
Senator Kerry,
I do not understand how the Democratic majority in the Senate can ask for money or support from anyone when they have not stepped up to fight.
Can you please explain to me how the minority can block your agenda, but you can't block the Bush agenda?
I stood out in the cold with my daughter last November with a tank of Starbucks and boxes of Dunkin Donuts (all of which I paid for) to hand out every last Dem sample ballot at our polling precinct in Leesburg, Virginia. We carried our precinct for Jim Webb by a couple dozen votes.
After all that effort in every precinct around the country, don't you think the Senate could step up to the fight?
You mention filibusters. To be clear: have there been any filibusters? I know there have been threats of filibusters, but to my knowledge no one has ever forced Mitch McConnell to lose any sleep over a single vote in this Congress.
I'm reminded of when you marched up on stage to report for duty and then were mercilessly assaulted by the swiftboaters. An entire nation put it's trust in you on that stage that day, and you let us down by failing to fight.
The all-too-quick concession in Ohio made my stomach turn. I didn't think you had the votes, but you owed it to every person who voted for you to make sure every last vote was counted. It's what Bush would have done. Let us not forget he filed a lawsuit (Bush v. Gore) to win in 2000.
Here's my bottom line. You and your colleagues start blocking the Bush agenda, and we'll reconsider backing you up. We did our part. Now it's your turn. Don't come back to us until you can show some results. Trust but verify.
As I write this, the Senate just gave Bush his Iraq war funding with "no strings attached". Again. Not a promising start.