Houston Democrats

If you will notice, the list of 88 signators was dominated by members of the Congressional Black and Congressional Progressive Caucuses and the early announcements were from the progressive community. It is both inspiring and ironic that the grandchildren and great grandchildren of American Slaves, whose human rights were decimated by that putrid institution, are leading the nation in challenging the malicious destruction of our democracy and advocating its restoration for us all.
And as usual, the voices of so called "moderates" and "centrists" are largely silent. Clearly this latter group is waiting to be led and John Conyers, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Lee and their CBC colleages are more than up to the task of leading.

Conyers said (on Kos) that he got signatures while the House had recessed for the weekend, so most had left town. He asked 88 to sign, and 88 signed. He may have *not* asked a few that he didn't think would sign, but no one is absent from that list because they declined to sign it.

Conyers is definately standing up and showing how it's supposed to be done. Don't disagree with that at all, just clarifying the 'who signed' situation.

The method of collection of signatures is not in question. A reading of the list of signators and familiarity with the names of those on the CBC(Congressional Black Caucus) and the HPC(House Progressive Caucus) allows one familiar with their membership to quickly deduce the affiliation of those signing. Progressive Democrats of America assisted the the collection of signatures. Any further discussion, Ralph?

Conyers said: "There would have been many more had there been more time. Every single Member of Congress I personally asked to sign the letter, signed it."

and

"in this case, time is of the essence.

On Thursday, the House went out of session and my colleagues went back to their districts. Most are not scheduled to return until late Tuesday. My assessment that we needed to send the letter to the President and to the media before too much time went by.

by Congressman John Conyers on Fri May 6th, 2005 at 13:21:36 CST"

There are plenty of logical reasons to bash the centrists, but bashing for not signing a letter when Conyers didn't ask them to is without logic. If Conyers and/or the PDA chose to ask members of the CBC and HPC, that's their perogative, but jumping to conclusions about the members that were not asked takes the focus off the prize of ramming this memo down the throats of the Republicans.

If you're going to badmouth Democrats, you better have a good argument.

I have an excellent argument. As a active member of PDA, I am very much in touch with the process to collect those signatures, not dependent on a blog for my information, but rather, those on the fronts lines working with Conyers, Kucinich and others. I will be delighted to apologize for trashing Democrats when you can show me a substantial number (I'll settle for say 30%) of signators in a couple of weeks from today who are not members of the CBC or the HPC and therefore would self-describe as centrists and moderates. In the meantime, also, show me the Congressional centrists and moderates taking a leadership position in challenging Bush on his deceit and lying to lead 1,700 young Americans to the slaughter in Iraq. The point being, Progressives are leading............non-progressives silent as usual.

Ralph, right after writing my post above I found this little gem on the same general topic from David Sirota. Read and probably wince:
Ignoring the GOP, "Moderates" Insist on Crying

Democrats have a lot of challenges ahead - stopping the hard-right's agenda, fighting for the progressive cause, and pushing back against the GOP in Congress, to name a few. So it is truly disheartening to see today's new Roll Call story showing that, instead of fighting all these important battles, "moderate" Democrats are spending a huge amount of their time crying like infants and making baseless charges against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Remember, I recently praised these "moderates" for their announcement that they would be opposing CAFTA - so I'm not one who only bashes these folks, and never gives them credit. But enough is enough: this petty war these "moderates" are waging against the Democratic leadership is truly irresponsible and has become completely destructive.

It would be one thing if they had a serious, substantive complaint against Pelosi. Yet, according to Roll Call, these "moderates" are still whining simply because a few weeks ago Pelosi had the guts to tell the truth and level with Democrats who sold out the party by supporting the credit card-industry written bankruptcy bill. In other words, all she did was tell the truth and try to keep her party together - exactly what a LEADER is elected to do. For Democrats who desperately need to project strength and resolve, this whining and crying is just another example of "moderates" once again undermining the party at the worst possible time.

"Moderates say they are waiting for action, not apologies, from Pelosi," the story says about these political crybabies. "They say they want the Minority Leader to show that moderate and conservative Democrats are part of party decision-making..." Funny, last I checked, these "moderates" are not only "part of party decision-making" but they have actually taken over decision making for the party by abandoning the party on key votes, and therefore sending the embarrassing message to America that Democrats are divided on even the most fundamental economic issues. In fact, these "moderates" have been so assertive in making such destructive decisions on behalf of the party, the right-wing Washington Times is now bragging about them - a true sign of disgrace. The paper notes:

"So far this year in the House, 50 Democrats helped pass class action reform...42 joined in legislation repealing the death tax, 73 supported the bankruptcy bill...[and] 41 joined the Republicans on the final version of the energy bill."

Sadly, that sure as hell sounds like "moderates" are more than just "a part" of the decision making process.

Roll Call additionally notes that these "moderates" want to know that "that their views — even when different from the liberal majority of the party — are understood and respected." The flat-out answer here should be easy: NO. Pelosi is right to let her colleagues know that when they undermine the majority of Democrats who are courageously defending ordinary Americans, there will be no "understanding" or "respect." There will be exactly the opposite - that's the kind of tough discipline the Republicans used to build their majority, and that's how Democrats will ultimately build theirs. Pelosi and the Democratic leadership should ignore these sad crybabies who are undermining so many good Democratic foot soldiers in Congress, stay focused on the real problem (aka. the GOP), and press on the way they have been over the last few months.

NOTE: I put "moderate" in quotes because the term is a complete misnomer that really means Democrats who are willing to support the GOP's right-wing economic agenda when politically/financially advantageous. See my earlier piece in the Nation that more fully analyzes how the term "moderate" and "centrist" as used in today's political vernacular have nothing to do with reality.

posted by David Sirota @ 11:05 PM

OK

If you are saying that Conyers' statements are not true, I guess I can't argue with you.

A most disengenuous response. Rep. Conyers was not the only person circulating the petition; other members of both Caucuses were as well AND staffers from Progressive Democrats of America. Not doubt, being a man of great truth and progressive integrity, he was not lying or misleading about the responses HE received to his circulating the petition. But there were others as well and the circulation continues, as does also the noticable absence of "moderates and centrists", who in the main still think the 5 or 10 circular revolving rationales Bush sequentially fielded to sending our young off to die for a lie were just hunkie dory.

Who do you know that refused to sign?

What is important is who has had the courage to lead and sign................the progressives. Though signature collection continues, the pattern is already clear............"moderates and DLC centrists" have not stood in line to be among the first, have they? This is the message from them...their absence.

Is that the case or did the PDA ask the members that they knew rather than the hated centrists?

The cream always rises to the top. Where are your
centrists who stand for...........what exactly? Collusion with the opposition, selling us out and the truth with it for expediency, typically.

The Washington Post finally acknowledged the memo today. Too little to late, but hopefully it will give the story legs.

Your link is broken - try this one -

WaPo

Is Congress and the Senate trying to tell the American people that the 1600 American soldiers and countless thousands of permanently wounded soldiers are just expendable? That like the oath they gave, their President's oath, before GOD, to protect them at all cost and to send them, into harms way, only if necessary,was all just for convenience?
If these allocations are true, these men died for his personal gain, and those who support him.
Does anybody really understand the trail of broken lives of wives, husbands and children, that have taken place because of this?
Let me be perfectly clear. Our soldiers signed up, with the possibility of paying the highest price for their country. They also signed up to trust and obey their commander and chief.
THEY DID NOT SIGN UP TO DIE FOR A LIE! If this is true, it is nothing short of treason.
With all the open lieing going on in government today, it's no wonder recruiting is down.
All the fear that was spread leading up to this war, weapons , attacks etc. not a one has materialized. Then it all of a sudden turned into a peace mission. People being acused left and right about their lack of patriotism!
The only ones who have shown true patriotism are the brave soldiers who have payed that price.
Those responsible for sending them and the media whoses job it was to verbally protect them, have all been missing in action.
For this matter to be slid under the rug, will cause the ultimate demise of what respect their is left of this country. Our soldiers died for that integrity, for many wars. Don't let then die in vain. ------- Everett