I've scheduled a meeting with Congresswoman Tauscher's (CA-10) District Director next week to discuss Tauscher's MoveOn vote.
I explained over the phone to the District Director that I'd like to know why the Congresswoman voted to condemn MoveOn.org when she hasn't called specifically for the condemnation of Senator Chuck Hagel for his equally negative statements about General Petraeus.
Does Congresswoman Tauscher believe that ordinary citizens should not be allowed to condemn the activities of a military official who has repeatedly misled the American people? Does she believe that only Senators and members of the House have the right and responsibility to condemn these military officials for their mendacious activities?
I outline what help I need to prepare for the meeting below...
In speaking with the District Director yesterday, her responses to my inquiries essentially came down to the following:
1 Congresswoman Tauscher has condemned the remarks of Senator Hagel. Perhaps Ms. Barton meant that Tauscher has issued some general statement of condemnation. I'll find out next week, but if anyone knows anything about such a thing, I'd appreciate the information in advance of the meeting.
2 The MoveOn.org condemnation was part of a larger bill that included the SCHIP legislation. The point being that Tauscher's vote against MoveOn was required for some larger good. This was news to me. I can't find any reference to this on the 'net. Any truth in this? Any other background info about it?
Since George Miller, of Tauscher's neighboring district, voted against the MoveOn.org condemnation resolution and is clearly a supporter of SCHIP, this argument is clearly an attempt to make the issue go away with a falsehood. I'm hoping that the District Director doesn't use this excuse again.
Perhaps the MoveOn.org condemnation vote was some sort of backroom quid pro quo maneuver engineered by Hoyer and Emanuel. If so, I'd be looking for an explanation of what that was all about.
3 The Congresswoman voted to condemn MoveOn.org because she thought it's ad was "counterproductive". I'm not clear how the MoveOn ad could have been counterproductive in any way given the polls that appear to show continuing skepticism on the part of the American people about General Petraeus and his reliability.
My agenda for the meeting is to focus on the actual vote condemnation of MoveOn.org vs. there being no vote to condemn anyone else or any other organization.
I suspect that there will be no good answer provided to the question of why Congresswoman Tauscher has voted to condemn the free speech expression of an organization representing 3 million American citizens when she hasn't voted to condemn anyone or anything else making negative statement about Petraeus.
If appropriate, it seems to me that a letter to the local news media headlined Tauscher says: "Only elites should criticize Petraeus and the War" might be fun to write.
You can help me to prepare for the meeting in two ways:
1 I'm only going to have a short period for the meeting during which, of course, I will be polite and professional. Any and all nuanced discussion of the issues noted above as well as message theme tips is much appreciated.
2 Any instance (with a link if possible) of an individual or organization harshly criticizing General Petraeus is also appreciated. The more comprehensive my list of instances the better.
Wish me luck...
:)