October 3, 2005


Yesterday I thanked the 6 House Democrats--Lee, Conyers, Woolsey, Grijalva, McKinney & Waters--who joined 300,000 of us at the antiwar march/rally/concert last weekend. We do appreciate it.

Today I want to ask the obvious follow-up question, which several commenters also raised--where were the rest of the House & Senate Dems?

There are 202 House Democrats, plus 1 Independent, plus several nonvoting House Dems. Plus, there are 44 Senate Democrats, plus 1 Independent.

A grand total of 6 out of these 250 leaders showed up in support of the antiwar movement--less than 3% of the House Dems, and 0% of the Senate.

On antiwar legislation currently being proposed in the Congress, here are some other numbers:

*Rep. Barbara Lee (news, bio, voting record) has proposed H.Con.Res. 197, which calls for no permanent military bases in Iraq. Since this is supposedly U.S. intent, this would seem to be an easy one to sign onto--Democrats could cosponsor, and if attacked, just quote leading Administration figures who claim we are not in Iraq to stay, only to instill democracy. Yet as I write this, Rep. Lee has only 50 cosponsors, one of whom is Libertarian Republican Ron Paul of Texas. Where are the other 150 House Dems? and are there no Senators willing to join her?

*Rep. Tom Allen has offered a similar proposal, H.R.3142, reaffirming that it is not U.S. policy to maintain a permanent presence in Iraq--but he has only 24 cosponsors so far, meaning that 180 House Dems and all the Senate Dems are still missing.

*Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Dennis Kucinich have joined with Republicans Walter Jones and Ron Paul to offer the "Homeward Bound" Act, H.J.Res 55. This bipartisan piece of legislation is hardly radical, and indeed has 5 GOP cosponsors. So why are there almost 150 House Democrats who have yet to cosponsor? And why is there no companion bill in the Senate yet?

*Senators Feingold & Boxer have offered S.Res.171, which asks only for Bush to report on the time frame for withdrawal from Iraq. What could be more reasonable than that? Yet no other Senator has joined them.

What in the world are our Democratic "leaders" waiting for? The fact is, the tide has already turned on this war. The American people are ready for troop withdrawals, ready for serious negotiations, ready to start spending our tax money on Katrina reconstruction rather than Fallujah destruction.

Consider these mid-September poll numbers from www.pollingreport.com (prior to the march/rally/concert last week):

*3/5 of Americans disapprove of the way George W. is handling the Iraq War. (Newsweek poll)

*4/5 of all Democrats--and 3/5 of Independents--disapprove! (CBS/NY Times poll)

*2/3 of us think we are spending too much in Iraq. (AP/Ipsos poll)

*3/5 of Americans now think we made a mistake even sending troops to Iraq. (CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll)

*only 1/3 of adults want to either maintain or increase the number of troops in Iraq; another 1/3 wants to withdraw some troops; and another 1/3, roughly, wants to bring the troops home. (CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll)

*3/4 of Americans do not believe that George W. has come up with a clear plan to get out of Iraq. (CBS/NY Times poll)

*9 out of 10 Americans disapprove of cutting spending on domestic programs like education or health care, in order to pay for Iraq. (CBS/NY Times poll)

Democrats could hardly ask for more favorable terrain. Yet they are behaving much like my cat, who thinks she is hidden when she sticks her head into a paper bag, even though her tail remains in plain sight. Our political leaders, with a few notable exceptions, are M.I.I.--Missing In Inaction. And the whole world is watching.

© 2005 The Huffington Post

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