Freedom's Fire, Brightly Burning: Dem Senators: Sign Kerry's letter!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Dem Senators: Sign Kerry's letter!

Raw Story informs us that there is definitely a letter being passed around the Senate for signatures: Kerry confidantes say senator is seeking others to cosign letter on Downing minutes.

Folks, we have work to do! Let's contact our Senators and let them know that we want them to sign onto Senator Kerry's letter, which requests the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate the Downing Street Minutes.

From the article:

Two confidants of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told RAW STORY Tuesday that he is privately seeking other senators to cosign a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Downing Street minutes.

"Kerry has been enlisting other senators to sign onto a letter to the intelligence committee seeking answers to the Downing Street memo," said one, "so Americans can trust that security decisions are driven by facts and responsible intelligence, not by political calculation."

The reactions from the Massachusetts senators come after action in the House. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) penned a response to the Downing Street minutes five days after it leaked to the British Sunday Times, demanding that President Bush answer new questions about the contents of the secret document.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who signed Conyers letter, told RAW STORY the missive is part of a plan to "keep agitating the public" and to convince more Republicans and Democrats in Congress to act in response to the Downing Street minutes.

The Raw Story article follows a similar report in Tuesday's Washington Post, "Democrats Looking for a Road Map to Downing Street":

...Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has come out swinging. A senior aide close to Kerry said this week that Kerry is circulating a letter about the memo among Democratic senators before sending it to Bush. The aide predicted that Kerry would make the letter public in the next few days.

Some in blogworld have observed that it's been 2 weeks since Senator Kerry promised to "raise the issue"; and seem to want to know, what's taking so long? Well, the good news is that the story seems to only be getting stronger every day, judging by the steady increase in Google News hits that I get on the query "Downing Street Memo." I posted my take on it earlier on Booman Tribune:

I think a lot of folks in the blogosphere smell blood in the water and want to go in for the kill, with an immediate, direct strike. I don't think that's Kerry's way, though. And given what happened with the TANG memos, I can't say I blame him - or the rest of our Senate leaders, who are no doubt working with him on this. Let it seep into the public's consciousness gradually. Raise it in a way that cannot be written off as "strident" or "crazy" - like the RW spin machine tried to do when Kerry first mentioned it, by immediately trying to say he was calling for impeachment - so that he would be written off as crazy, even though he never said anything like that. If you've been watching the google news hits, you've seen we are gaining ground every day. To me, that means we're doing something right.

drip... drip... drip...

And as Pamela at LUTD observes,

Raw Story ... claimed that the statement came "after nearly two weeks of silence from the senator," implying that by not speaking to the media that Kerry has been silent, when indeed he has not been silent, since he has been talking to his Senate colleagues.

With John Kerry, silence does not mean he has been inactive. Au Contraire... John Kerry has been doing what John Kerry does best... following through in a pragmatic manner on this issue to actually get something achieved.

In addition, John Kerry has had a full schedule in the past week, one set not by Democrats but by the Republicans who control the Senate.

Pamela's post then links to previous posts on several of the initiatives the Senator has been working on just these last few days; I also posted a summary for the impatient ones a few days ago. And apparently Raw Story missed the second media teaser that Kerry sent out, last Tuesday (hmmm...weekly reminders, near the beginning of the news cycle each week? We're learning.)

So, the bottom line is: Kerry promised to raise the issue, he evidently has raised the issue, but to raise it to where everybody wants it - a formal investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee - he needs some othe Senators to back him up.

That's where we come in. Contact your Senators - today. Ask them to SIGN Senator Kerry's letter. And tell him, I've got your back on this, Senator!

Permalink posted by MH : 12:08 AM

Comments:

Marie,

You go girl! I'd call my senators, but since they're both Republicans, one of whom wouldn't even add his name to the recent lynching apology resolution, I doubt they'd be interested. But keep up the good work.

# posted by

Todd Mitchell : Wed Jun 15, 05:19:00 PM EDT

Thanks Todd,

but heh heh, I am not Marie. I am MH. The M is not for Marie. ;-)

Marie writes for Dawn of a New America and sometimes comments here and at LUTD.

I appreciate your comments though!

Oh and btw, a poster at dkos said they get a kick out of getting people to call their R senators on this, because if they get enough calls, an aide will have to change the tracking sheets to add the category "DSM". I like that! Let's make 'em work!

# posted by

MH : Wed Jun 15, 08:04:00 PM EDT

I called my senators, Levin and Stabenow, thanks to your urging. The staffers seemed to know about this letter by Kerry -- that is, that it existed, at least -- so they may have been getting calls on this already.

BTW, don't think I ever said Thanks for putting the KerryOnIraqWar banner on your site. The site hasn't been updated in a while, but people do come by there still. If Kerry starts to make noise about the DSM, I'll start updating the site, and it may get more active again.

# posted by