by Bill Simpich, published 1/19/06 on CounterPunch.org
Many of us in United for Peace and Justice-
SF Bay Area have been pushing Nancy Pelosi for months to have
a “town hall meeting” on the Iraq war. When she finally
agreed to hold one on Saturday, January 14, it confirmed my belief
in the maxim of “don’t ask for what you don’t want”–you’ll
usually regret it.
Think about it–she controlled
the Marina Middle School auditorium, the neighborhood, the guest
list (you had to RSVP to get inside), the agenda, the 45-minute
opening statement, the subsequent Q&A format (written questions
only). Good luck having a reasonable dialogue. Anyway, when life
hands you a lemon, lemonade remains the best option.
Our group agreed that we would
give her half an hour to bore the audience–packed with her pals–knowing
that she wouldn’t be able ! to stop talking. Based on the safe
assumption that she also wouldn’t be able to address her nonstop
votes for war funding, we would then leave our seats and stand
on the side of the hall with our signs. One side of the signs
read, “Stop voting to fund the war”, “Bring ALL
the troops home now”, and “Lead the Democrats to end
the war now”. On the other side, all the signs said, “Speak
to the War Funding”.
When the discussion turned
to supporting Rep. Jim McGovern’s bill (“de-fund the war”)
rather than Rep. John Murtha’s bill (which would “re-deploy”
the troops “over the horizon” to US bases in neighboring
countries as well as US ships), I was amazed that we didn’t have
unanimity on this issue, even in our small group. When I protested
that the Murtha bill set the stage for a possible later attack
on Iran or Syria and failed to address stopping the air war on
Iraq, I was met with the response that the Murtha bill still
represented a good “firs! t step”.
Don’t ask for what you don’t
want. Go ahead, say good things about Murtha, but for God’s sake
don’t say a good thing about his bill. Because if George Bush
wants to avert a Class 5 hurricane at the polls in November,
he’s going to have to conduct at least a fig-leaf-style withdrawal
by then. Let’s set the stage for the right kind of withdrawal.
Complete and utter. The focus has got to be on “de-funding
the war now”. The McGovern bill does that.
Things went according to plan
for the first part. The audience was listening intently as she
talked about the NSA spying, but she gave us no explanation for
her failure to blow the whistle on this illegal program since
she was tipped off about it back in 2002. When she started carrying
on about her leadership role to amend the worst provisions in
the PATRIOT Act, we picked up our signs and took our stations
along the left side of the 700-seat hal! l. Everyone read our
signs, and looked back and forth at us and at Nancy. We remained
silent. Not so for Nancy’s aide Dan Bernal, who was in our face
shouting that we were somehow “blocking the aisles”,
which was only true as long as his butt was in the way.
Before we had a chance to flip
our signs to “Speak to the War Funding” en masse, the
speech ended and it was time for Q&A. The moderator decided
to try to moderate us by getting our question out of the way:
“Are you prepared to lead the Democrats by voting to stop
the funding of the war?”
What happened next? She answered
the question, in just the way the most cynical person would expect.
As the press described it:
“‘The money is for the
troops,’ said Pelosi, who initially voted against the war, but
has voted in favor of appropriations bills to pay for it. I’m
not prepared to go against the troops’ having the equipment they
need.'” (Erin McCormick, San Francisco Chronicle)“Her response ” that
she would not undercut support for U.S. troops ” was quickly
drowned out by shouts and chants of Bring them home’ and No more
money for war.'” (Mark Z. Berabak, Los Angeles Times)
Any chance of a follow-up question
was lost due to the lack of a disciplined response in our ranks.
Nancy and the moderator had the only mikes firmly in their hands.
Once again, we had got what we had asked for.
We had bungled our moment.
Now, what to do? Sit down, or shut down a town hall meeting as
part of a call for greater democracy?
Code Pink, stationed on the
other side of the auditorium, walked right up to front of the
stage under Nancy’s feet. That made it easy for our black-clad,
largely middle-aged group–we had to support Code Pink. Thirty
of us and our signs took center stage with Nancy for the rest
of the meeting. Dan shouldn’t have quite so mouthy about us standing
in the aisles. He too had asked for what he did not want.
The questions continued. When
the impeachment question hit, it was clear that the vast majority
of the room was on our side on this one. Even the LA Times admitted
that “many in the crowd…wanted nothing less than the ouster
of Bush”.
According to the Chronicle:
“Speak to Bush’s impeachment,’
members of the crowd chanted at one point.Pelosi called for a congressional
investigation on the revelation that the Bush administration
had authorized domestic spying, but pooh-poohed calls for impeachment
hearings against the president.I think we should solve this
issue electorally,” she said, urging audience members to
channel their energy into the 2006 elections.'”
Well, if an electoral solution
is what you want, don’t follow Ms. Pelosi. It’s one thi! ng to
acknowledge that conservative Democrat John Murtha did the nation
a big favor when he said bluntly that it was time to get “all
the troops” out of Iraq in the next six months. But it’s
another thing to say that she would never “impose”
any leadership on the question of getting the troops out of Iraq.
there was no official party position on the war and she would
never seek to impose one. Her prediction was that Democrats would
eventually adopt Murtha’s position based on public pressure.
Let the LA Times weigh in on
this one:
“Quite frankly, I think
the fact that people have to get to this place in a period of
time is a healthy thing,” Pelosi said. Many in the audience….disagreed.
They repeatedly challenged the antiwar resolve of Pelosi and
her fellow Democrats, in both the written questions they submitted
and the criticism they hollered out.”
We need candidates to challenge
Pelosi. She is far from invincible. The idea of her as Speaker
of the House is too awful to contemplate. When asked to provide
any reason to believe that the Democrats had a future, she meandered
into a long-winded invocation of FDR and then scolded the crowd
for the repeated peals of laughter.
There’s hope in New York, where
two candidates are opposing Hillary Clinton–former National
Writers Union president Jonathan Tasini and former Green Party
member Steven Greenfield. As Tasini puts it, Clinton is a “pro-war
candidate, who opposes bringing our troops home now, believes
NAFTA was a good thing, supports trade deals that cost American
jobs, who opposes a real universal health care plan and who gets
large amounts of money from corporate donors.” Brookings
Institute Senior Fellow Thomas Mann agrees. “She has a reputation
as a strong liberal, which is at variance with her background,
her agreement with her husband on most issues and ! most of her
policies in the Senate,” Hillary will be in San Francisco
on January 28–join us in giving her a warm welcome.
We can end the war this year,
much to Pelosi’s dismay, if the Republicans are convinced that
they are looking at a Category 5 hurricane in November. Let’s
put the heat on Democrats as well as Republicans. Let’s not let
women such as Pelosi or Clinton off the hook despite the need
for gender balance. Let’s link our antiwar efforts with a full-court
press to isolate the interests of the rich from the interests
of the poor AND the working class AND the middle class. As just
one example, universal health care has proven to be a winning
political issue in states such as Oregon and can win in many
more when its taxpayer-based cost is compared to the current
soaring insurance rates.
The antiwar movement is moving
in the right direction by exposing Pelosi and Clinton and their
lack of commitment to either peace! or justice. Now we have to
take it to the next level by making McGovern’s bill to “de-fund
the war” and a corresponding call for economic justice the
litmus test in every Congressional race in the United States.
While we’re at it, let’s join Cindy Sheehan and The World Can’t
Wait during Bush’s State of the Union on January 31 and see if
we can drive his regime right into the sea. Ask for what you
want.
Bill Simpich is an Oakland civil rights lawyer
and anti-war activist. He can be reached at: billsimpich@yahoo.com