On Thursday, May 6, about 20 members of the Coffee Party, including myself, converged on Capitol Hill to deliver petitions advocating specific actions on Wall Street reform, and to have several meetings with Senators' staff, some scheduled, some ad hoc. At least one of us had to shed his Kossackian partisan personna in favor of the non-partisan, civil discourse mantra of the Coffee Party, but I found that new mantra to be very effective, in fact, because those listening to us had to shed any preconceived notions in terms of "lefty Kos blogger" or "Glen Beckian wingnut." Civil? Non-partisan? What's to be made of such a being? We achieved our goals.
That being said, the suprise of the day occurred after all the scheduled activities had been completed, and I actually heard John McCain compare himself to Humphrey Bogart. More after the fold....
The Coffee Party started almost as a whim in the mind of Annabel Park, who one day posted on Facebook an idea to start something as a contrast to the Tea Party, something much quieter, more civil, and focused on working with government instead of against it. She proposed calling it the Coffee Party. Soon after, I happened to notice her post on Facebook, and a few days later met with her, co-founder (and fellow filmmaker) Eric Byler, and 7 others at the Commissary restaurant in DC where we brainstormed about our goals and our future. We decided to form a couple of chapters in northern Virginia, which were soon followed up with meetings. Long story short, 12 weeks later we had over 200,000 Facebook fans and many non-Facebook fans via coffeepartyusa.com, and appearances by Annabel on CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post.
So last Thursday was deemed "Coffee Party D.C. Lobby Day," and we met on Capitol Hill that morning.
The first scheduled meeting was at 9AM with Doug Ierley, Counsel to Senator Jim Webb. Our first speaker was our newly named Coffee Party spokesperson, Col. Morris (Moe) Davis. Does this name strike a chord with Kossacks? Well, a diary in August 2008 by ACLU describes how Last week also brought additional testimony by Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the militaHery commissions, in Omar Khadr’s case. Col. Davis resigned in last October, citing political interference. He has testified in Hamdan, Jawad, and now Khadr’s hearings to criticize Brig. Gen. Hartmann’s interference with the prosecution of military commission cases, including pressuring the prosecution to get trials underway before the presidential election. On Wednesday Col. Davis repeated his famous testimony recalling his initial job interview, when the Defense Department’s chief counsel William J. Haynes II told him that the military commissions couldn’t result in acquittals because "We’ve been holding these guys for years." Moe, as he prefers to be called, told us he also quit because of the torture issue. Mr. Davis lends incredible bonafides to our organization, I feel, and besides which he is a hellavu nice guy. We divided the discussion amongst ourselves, and emphasized support for a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency (there has already been compromise, no more weakening), support for the Volker amendment, viz., Merkely-Levin, to basically reinstate Glass Steagall to separate commercial from investment banking, (which we characterized as systemic risk prevention), banking stability, such as that proposed in the Safe Act (Brown/Kaufman) to limit their size ("too big to fail), derivatives reform, and credit rating agency reforms. All of the above is to be in the context, supported by the President, of openness and accountability. Unlike the response of Senator Warner's Chief of Staff, with whom we had met the week before (the Senator opposes Brown/Kaufman), Sen. Webb was said to support it, along with most of the other points we made. It was explained that with some 180 amendments being offered, this was all a work in progress. We were very pleased to be informed by Mr. Ierley that Sen. Webb was co-sponsoring an amendment with Sen. Sanders for a close audit of the Federal Reserve - one, the mention of anyone teaming up with Bernie Sanders brought a gleam to the eye of any Kossackian, of course, and two, later research indicated White House opposition !
opposition
So, photo op in Sen. Webb's office with Mr. Ierley:
Down the elevator we went, to reconnect in the Dirksen cafeteria for further preparation, when serendipity took hold and there he was, we introduced ourselves and talked about the 2006 campaign:
In summary, we came away feeling good about the prospects of Sen. Webb supporting the cause.
Back at the cafeteria, the organizers, led by co-founder Annabel Park and organizer Josh Lynch from Boston, had done an incredible job of taking about 8 thousand petitions, gathered in only a few days actually, and sorting them into packets, one per Senator, with only petitioners from that State in the packet, complete with name and address. The second item was a sheet with the Coffee Party Mission Statement:
The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them
. We all handwrote messages such as "Americans Want Wall Street Reform NOW" in a box on that sheet:
The third item was a composite of photos from chapters across the country. After this was ready, we went outside to show the people who we were, and to let them hear our voices. To our pleasant surprise, we got many thumbs up and cheers of support from passersby:
We then split the packets up and headed off to the threeDirksen, Hart, and Russell. I found the rest of the afternoon pretty inspiring in terms of the fact that every door was wide open, they welcomed us when we came in, and in several cases we got meetings on the spot!
Meetings included the staffs of Senators Menendez, Merkley, Ingrahm, and Specter (funny thing, his wall had photos of him posing with both R's and D's), I know there were more but I don't have the complete summary, it's in preparation. By the way, we had "asterisked" Senators who were wavering here and there with whom we were to try hard to meet. We were briefed very thoroughly by the real experts in this issue, believe me.
EXTRA ADDED BONUS: We ran into Mike Stark roaming the lobby holding a diaper for Senator Vitter. Who knew we would be so lucky?
I've always been impatient with long diaries, and now I are one. I'm tired. Let me wrap up by saying I think we accomplished our goals, getting the Senate to understand who we are, and getting specific points across to them. We came away tired by fulfilled. Although tired, I decided to schlep over to the actual Senate and use a Senate Gallery pass given to me by Senator Webb's staff, since the debate was still on.
This had to be about 5:30PM by the time I got there, only to be greeted by the scene of only two Senators on the floor: John McCain speaking loudly to himself, and Chris Dodd patiently waiting for him to finish. I had never seen a live debate before. They confiscate your cameras, cell phones, etc., before you enter. They give you a copy of "The United States Senate," and discourage you from talking. There were only about 8 other non-press watching this momentous debate! I took copious notes, between napping, on this brochure, until they told me "no note taking allowed except the press." Well excuuuuse me. Can we bring this up later?? Only the wonderful press can take notes, but private citizens cannot do the same to perhaps verify the authenticity of what is printed? What is wrong with this picture??
Anyway....McCain was doing a long....did I say long...diatribe against Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae....I thought "he may be right in much of what he said, but he forget to mention that he, John The Maverick, pushed successfully for repeal of Glass Steagel)....He stated that if you counted the deficits of Freddie and Fanny (which he says we don't), it would add $270 billion to the national debt, and also they received $23 billion in subsidies, but passed on only $13 billion to homeowners....he called it "crony capitalism." He finished and started to leave....then it gets interesting...and Dodd asks him "Senator, will you be putting down your amendment to my committee?" McCain looked truly flustered. "But, but they told me you would table it, so I didn't bother." "I must say that I feel like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, I have been misinformed," quoted the maverick! My memory gets slightly hazy at this point, but it was either Dodd or Reid who asked if he would place the amendment and vote for it, and McCain said yes. Then they started a long, gradual process to get 20 Senators to vote, which, I was told, technically allowed the Seargent at Arms to "arrest" Senators at their homes to force them to come to vote. Slowly they filed into the room over the next hour or so. And here it started to get really confusing as there was no guidance as to what they were even voting on, and there was huddling, and whispering, and Reid walking in and out. Only after reading today's Post did I realize that "in a show of good faith, Reid disappeared into the GOP cloakroom at the back of the Senate chamber and negotiated a time agreement on the next round of votes." The Post headlined it as "A Startline peace breaks out in the Senate." And to think only about 10 citizens witnessed it...was it on CSpan anyone? But I just loved the interplay, watching Schumer quietly twisting arms (he sat down next to Webb and they seemed cool together) and the wonderful resonating laugh of Senator Franken echoing through the hall just made me feel wonderful, in fact, this whole demonstration of democracy before my eyes, after having citizen particiation earlier, made this one of the most fulfilling days ever for me. Now although the Safe Act limiting bank size was defeated (Webb was for it, Warner against), a good amendment, according to today's Post, did pass. (Note: as soon as McCain finished, the couple behind me applauded. When Schumer came in the room and huddled, they got up to leave saying "I hope all those dirty lefties get defeated."). I refrained from violence.
Unlike the House, Senators indicate their vote by making eye contact with the woman counting the votes in her book and indicate Up or Down. How quaint. Webb really seemed to enjoy the whole scene, by the way.
So that was it, a good day for the democratic process, a good day for achieving Coffee Party goals, and, hopefully, a good day for America.
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