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CONTACT: Progressive Democrats of America Laura Bonham Communications Coordinator Laura@pdamerica.org, (435) 336-2123 Tim Carpenter, PDA Executive Director Tim@pdamerica.org, (413)-320-2015 |
PDA Replies to Lynn Woolsey Regarding Fundraising for Jane Harman
WASHINGTON - January 15 - The following is the PDA reply to Lynn Woolsey's response to the January 13 open letter concerning Woolsey's scheduled appearance at a fundraising event for Jane Harman:
Dear Lynn,
Thank you for your letter, which we're sending to PDA members and other progressives along with this response.
No effort to sugarcoat Jane Harman's political record can change the realities that are overwhelmingly in sync with a salient pair of facts: In Congress, she is not a member of the Progressive Caucus. She is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.
It's deeply disappointing to read in your letter that you will go ahead with traveling to Rep. Harman’s district to lead the January 16 fundraiser for her re-election campaign. The fact that the formal invitation’s headline refers to you as “Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus” speaks volumes.
What you are conferring on the Harman campaign is something far more valuable than an appeal for financial donations (which, given her vast personal wealth, are hardly needed). Your title of Progressive Caucus Co-Chair will be useful to the Harman campaign as it labors to give Democratic primary voters the false impression that she can be called “progressive” in any meaningful sense of the word.
The profound matters of healthcare and warfare are grim cases in point.
Rep. Harman, who is not among the 88 House members sponsoring the HR 676 single-payer bill, did not participate in the significant congressional efforts on behalf of the Kucinich amendment for a single-payer healthcare state option; her name does not appear as a signer on any of the three key letters sent to House committee chairs on behalf of the amendment last year.
As for war, minimal candor would require us to describe Rep. Harman as a reliable war booster. Typically, last year, she voted two out of two times in favor of the Iraq/Afghanistan war funding supplemental. It would be an understatement to describe her as a pillar of the military-industrial complex.
The question still remains: As one of the most committed anti-war members of Congress, why are you going out of your way to support one of the most pro-war Democrats in Congress?
Accountability is central to a meaningful progressive ethos within the Democratic Party. The progressive base must hold elected officials accountable.
We hope that you will be directly in touch with the 3,649 people who signed the letter that we sent you earlier this week.
We reiterate our full and enthusiastic support for PDA-endorsed candidate Marcy Winograd, the genuine and inspiring progressive in the race in California’s 36th congressional district.
For progressives, in these perilous times, candor is not optional—it is essential—a lifeline for our shared values as we work together to transform this country.
Peace and justice,
Tim Carpenter
National Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Mimi Kennedy
Advisory Board Chair,
Progressive Democrats of America
Donna Smith
Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare NOT Warfare Campaign Co-chair
Norman Solomon
Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare NOT Warfare Campaign Co-chair
3 Comments so far
Show AllJane Harman should have been cuffed and thrown into a cell with Jonathan Pollard after this scandal:
http://gawker.com/5219681/congresswoman-waddles-into-israeli-spy-storm
So now Jane wants to be "re-elected" to Congress??!!
Jane "This Conversation Does Not Exist" Harman?
And to think that she was on Obama's short list to be head of Central Intelligence?!
Houston.....we have a problem.....
Sadly, even the most reliable members of the Progressive Caucus are Democrats first. Sen. Boxer rushed to CT to support Lieberman against a more progressive Democrat in the primary that made him become the obnoxious "independent" with D committee leadership that he now is. Two examples of why we badly need a new, hopefully Democratic Socialist, party.
AMEN...Margalo! Sooner or later progressives will have to shed whatever loyalties they might have to the Democratic Party. As it stands now, union members and other progressives have NO political party to represent us.
Even the dullest of those on the political Left must have learned by now that the Democratic Party only borrows our rhetoric, begs for our money, and presumes that we have nowhere else to go with our votes. We should keep voting for genuine progressives among the "Democratic" Party candidates; but, anywhere we can find a progressive alternative to the Blue Dogs and self-styled "moderate" Democrats we MUST start voting for them.
We on the Left have been sold out by the powers-that-be among the DNC's corporatists and pseudo-liberals for almost 40 years while the 'Party of the People' has morphed into just another 'status quo' business-protective political organization.
When are we going to wake up and start flexing our muscles on our own behalf? Many among the current crop of "Democrats" in Washington are there only because their 'Republican' opponents were so horrifically rightwing. We on the Left have shown the DNC hacks that they can take their base for granted and concentrate on wooing voters who are already being represented by the Republicans.
Democrats who try to convince voters that they are NOT liberals have proved time after time that they can cheerfully run away from any principle that 'We The People' hold dear if it might garner them votes from the right. This mindset has so corrupted the DNC that no self-respecting voter trusts what the Democrats say about any issue or any governmental policy.
If we progressives continue to show (by our contributions, our votes....and our complacency) that the Dem Party owns us, there will be no change in the dynamics of the current political paradigm. In 2008, when so many Americans were disgusted with the politics of Bush and his cronies, there was a historic opportunity to CHANGE our political/economic/social structure. Mr. Obama and his crowd in Congress have blown that opportunity by emulating the failed politics of Bush & Company. We progressives have only ourselves to blame when we cling to Democrats rather than vote for alternative candidates whom we could trust....but whom (we were assured, unsurprisingly....by Democratic Party 'strategists') "couldn't win".
I want off of this bi-partisan merry-go-round! We are in desperate need of a 3rd party that will speak for US and represent OUR interests rather than Wall Street's.