I had the pleasure of joining fellow Democrats at lunch today. We were the guests of Congressman Norm Dicks WA-6. It was both a reaffirmation of the worthiness of our cause this year and a time for hearing it straight from the horse's mouth: the future of our country will be inexorably influenced by the war in Iraq for generations to come.
More below the fold....
I'm a resident of WA-6, a really beautiful place to live:
Norm Dicks has represented WA-6 since 1976. I don't know much about his history, since I didn't really pay attention to congressional politics until 2001.
I do know that Dicks did support the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.
On Thursday, I received an e-mail invitation to have lunch, on Norm, in Port Angeles, WA. I was eager to hear what he had to say. I arrived early and met Kevin VanDeWege's campaingn manager outside the meeting room where Norm would be speaking. We discussed Kevin's awesome performance in the Democratic primary for the 24th LD State House. Here's Kevin:
The position has been occupied since 1998 by Jim Buck, a Republican whose voting record could most positively be described as pro business. Here's Jim:
Kevin received 4,100 more votes than Buck in the recent primary. Both were the only candidates for their parties in the primary, so it's hard to say what this will translate to in November. Whatever, it's energizing to see such a result.
Soon after, Norm entered the room and, like a real politician, began shaking hands with the 60 or so folks present. He spent about 15 minutes doing this, making sure to touch base with nearly everyone in the room. Absent Norm's staff and Kevin and his staff, I was probably one of the youngest in attendance. I'd say average age of the people there was 60.
Soon after we finished eating, Norm took the podium and immediately launched into an excoriation of President Bush. At one point, he said that Richard Nixon was a better president than Bush. This statement drew many disapproving looks and clucks from the crowd. Norm continued that Nixon at least promoted some very progressive legislation regarding environmental issues. He detailed the many failures of the Bush adminstration, citing the mismanagement of the Iraq War, the corrupt manner in which the Medicare enhancement was crafted, and the reversal of a projected 1 trillion dollar budget surplus into a record 422 billion dollar deficit. He was genuinely concerned that this deficit would be a burden to future generations and that continuation of the Bush tax cuts was immoral.
Norm made a cogent case that 1/8th of the $200 bilion spent on Iraq, if spent here, would provide the foundation for comprehensive homeland security in the form of more secure borders and enhanced port security for container ships and cargo airplanes. But instead, George Bush decided to embark on the folly of Iraq. Norm was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1990 to 1998. He told us he considered George Tenet a personal friend and related a story about meeting Tenet in the White House prior to the vote on the Iraq War Resolution. He told Tenet that the resolution was a momentous event and wanted assurance from him that the intelligence upon which military action would be based was solid. He said Tenet told him it was a "slam dunk." Norm said that every intelligence agency in the world, the Germans, the French, the Russians, all agreed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. At this point, I wanted to ask him why I, jsut some jerk with a computer, knew that the WMD issue was complete crap even then. I kept myself under control and did not do this. He expressed some concern that Kerry's position on Iraq was less than clear, and blamed it mainly on the media coverage of the campaign. He thinks this will change soon.
Discussion then ranged to the current occupation. Congressman Dicks became quite serious. He said we were in a "real pickle." You could tell by the look on his face that he was troubled (I was sitting very close to the podium).
He closed his prepared remarks by saying that Washington is a pivotal state and the Murray/Nethercutt race for US Senate is strategically vital to both parties so we should expect quite a bit of attention from them in the run up to the general election. Norm affirmed that every elected position in the state is important, from county commisioner up, and that its important that Democrats be in those seats. Norm then took questions from the assembled Democrats, who were boisterous and well spoken. All in all, it was great to be in a room with so many fellow Dems, all engaged in the political process. I was glad to see Representative Dicks in person and hear his first hand account of history.