79 percent favor mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions; 90 percent favor higher auto fuel efficiency standards; 75 percent favor clean electricity, even with higher rates; 72 percent support more funding for mass transit (why was your party's platform so weak on this?);
67 percent favor public works projects to create jobs (your party's platform in Denver put barely more into this than it put into giving weapons to Israel);
73 percent favor abolishing nuclear weapons, with verification; 80 percent favor banning weapons in space; 81 percent oppose torture and support following the Geneva conventions; 85 percent say the United States should not initiate military action without support from allies; 63 percent want U.S. forces home from Iraq within a year; 07 percent (yes, 7 percent!) favor military action against Iran; and 69 percent favor using diplomatic and economic means to fight terrorism, not the military (so why did you propose putting our grandchildren further into debt to enlarge the world's biggest military and refuse to end the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other countries, or to take an attack on Iran "off the table"?);
86 percent say big companies have too much power; and 74 percent favor voluntary public financing of campaigns (so why did the AT&T Democratic National Convention disagree?).
Senate:
Your vote for telecom immunity was your worst vote because of the clarity with which you had campaigned against it. If I'd know you planned such a betrayal, I would have voted for Clinton in the primary. You lost a lot of supporters and a lot of volunteer hours by that reversal. Your flip on oil drilling didn't help.
Had you consistently voted in line with your rhetoric, your worst votes would have been those you took in support of funding the ongoing occupation of Iraq. You threw away your ability to use the single biggest issue, a hugely unpopular war, against an opponent who couldn't stop bragging about it through the election and even on his death bed. Now President-to-be Palin has picked up the same crusade.
And you threw away a likely landslide victory by refusing to support the impeachment of Bush or Cheney. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers repeatedly defended his failure to impeach on the grounds that he didn't want to hurt your election chances. But this made no sense, and a word from you would have reversed Conyers' and Pelosi's decision. When the Democrats had gone after Nixon they'd picked up 49 seats. When they'd let Reagan go they'd lost. When the Republicans had gone after Truman they'd won. When they'd gone after Clinton against the overwhelming opinion of the public, they'd lost a mere five seats and held both houses of Congress and taken the White House. Those five seats led you and your colleagues to rip the power of impeachment out of the Constitution. Yet, the Republicans lost 30 seats in the House in 2006 by backing an illegal and costly war, and you blissfully dumped hundreds of billions into continuing and escalating it.
Imagine what the impeachment trial would have looked like. Even if unsuccessful, it would have guaranteed your electoral victory. You would have defended the Constitution and the rule of law, while Senator McCain explained how he had been against torture before he was for it, and how he would not spy or lie or detain or abuse, but how he approved of Bush and Cheney having done so. After the Whigs attempted to impeach Tyler, they picked up seven seats, and Tyler left politics. Weeks after he lobbied for Johnson's impeachment, Grant was nominated for president. Lincoln had pushed toward the impeachment of Polk without introducing actual articles. He, too, was elected president.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, promised to cease committing various crimes of Bush and Cheney, while simultaneously claiming that you couldn't back impeachment or future prosecution because you were unaware of any crimes having been committed.
Short of impeachment you ought to have pushed for the use of inherent contempt, the power through which the House, Senate, or a committee thereof locks up a witness on Capitol Hill to compel their testimony. And you ought to have made it a top priority to assure safety and well-being to potential whistle blowers in the executive branch. By not taking a stance in support of oversight and accountability, you placed a single election ahead of the fate of our republic. By doing that, you lost yourself the election and helped lose us a lot more.
67 percent favor public works projects to create jobs (your party's platform in Denver put barely more into this than it put into giving weapons to Israel);
73 percent favor abolishing nuclear weapons, with verification; 80 percent favor banning weapons in space; 81 percent oppose torture and support following the Geneva conventions; 85 percent say the United States should not initiate military action without support from allies; 63 percent want U.S. forces home from Iraq within a year; 07 percent (yes, 7 percent!) favor military action against Iran; and 69 percent favor using diplomatic and economic means to fight terrorism, not the military (so why did you propose putting our grandchildren further into debt to enlarge the world's biggest military and refuse to end the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other countries, or to take an attack on Iran "off the table"?);
86 percent say big companies have too much power; and 74 percent favor voluntary public financing of campaigns (so why did the AT&T Democratic National Convention disagree?).
Your vote for telecom immunity was your worst vote because of the clarity with which you had campaigned against it. If I'd know you planned such a betrayal, I would have voted for Clinton in the primary. You lost a lot of supporters and a lot of volunteer hours by that reversal. Your flip on oil drilling didn't help.
Had you consistently voted in line with your rhetoric, your worst votes would have been those you took in support of funding the ongoing occupation of Iraq. You threw away your ability to use the single biggest issue, a hugely unpopular war, against an opponent who couldn't stop bragging about it through the election and even on his death bed. Now President-to-be Palin has picked up the same crusade.
And you threw away a likely landslide victory by refusing to support the impeachment of Bush or Cheney. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers repeatedly defended his failure to impeach on the grounds that he didn't want to hurt your election chances. But this made no sense, and a word from you would have reversed Conyers' and Pelosi's decision. When the Democrats had gone after Nixon they'd picked up 49 seats. When they'd let Reagan go they'd lost. When the Republicans had gone after Truman they'd won. When they'd gone after Clinton against the overwhelming opinion of the public, they'd lost a mere five seats and held both houses of Congress and taken the White House. Those five seats led you and your colleagues to rip the power of impeachment out of the Constitution. Yet, the Republicans lost 30 seats in the House in 2006 by backing an illegal and costly war, and you blissfully dumped hundreds of billions into continuing and escalating it.
Imagine what the impeachment trial would have looked like. Even if unsuccessful, it would have guaranteed your electoral victory. You would have defended the Constitution and the rule of law, while Senator McCain explained how he had been against torture before he was for it, and how he would not spy or lie or detain or abuse, but how he approved of Bush and Cheney having done so. After the Whigs attempted to impeach Tyler, they picked up seven seats, and Tyler left politics. Weeks after he lobbied for Johnson's impeachment, Grant was nominated for president. Lincoln had pushed toward the impeachment of Polk without introducing actual articles. He, too, was elected president.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, promised to cease committing various crimes of Bush and Cheney, while simultaneously claiming that you couldn't back impeachment or future prosecution because you were unaware of any crimes having been committed.
Short of impeachment you ought to have pushed for the use of inherent contempt, the power through which the House, Senate, or a committee thereof locks up a witness on Capitol Hill to compel their testimony. And you ought to have made it a top priority to assure safety and well-being to potential whistle blowers in the executive branch. By not taking a stance in support of oversight and accountability, you placed a single election ahead of the fate of our republic. By doing that, you lost yourself the election and helped lose us a lot more.
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