Folks, this will be brief. I've been calling Dick Lugar's DC office 2-3 times per week, and getting courteous treatment from his flack-catcher. However, I just don't see any movement on Lugar's 'I'm so confused!' position.
Below, I'll talk over what I've been doing -- but what I'm really asking for here is input from other Indiana folks. Am I all alone here? Are others calling Lugar? Is anything working?
If you've been following 'zeus4prez's diaries on various Senators' stands on 'the surge', you know that Dick Lugar is in the 'skeptical' category. Which seems to play out as: Lugar is saying that he 'needs more information' before he makes a decision, and that while he's not enthusiastic about 'the surge', he's not willing to take a stand against it.
Things I've been doing when I call (besides being courteous, although passionate) include --
-- repeating Lugar's most recent quotes, then rebutting them, as in: Lugar 'we need to be on the same page', my reply 'an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the escalation and want our troops out - please ask Sen Lugar to get on the same page as Americans'. When he made a football analogy to a play that buys time until the team can punt, I said, 'Please tell Sen Lugar that we can't punt with American lives.'
-- I seemed to get the flak-catcher's attention a little better when I spoke in terms of Sen Lugar's legacy, and how siding with the neocons and allowing/supporting the escalation would utterly destroy his legacy of years of anti-proliferation work.
Folks, I have to admit I'm getting worn down. If anybody has any ideas of how to communicate with Sen Lugar in a way that will motivate him to throw his clout against the escalation, I'd be glad to hear it. And it would be a big help to me just to know that other people are contacting Lugar.
I'm just about to do my usual evening blog-reading, so I'll be here off and on the rest of the evening. Thanks!