Antiwar Groups Use New Clout to Influence Democrats on Iraq

Antiwar Groups Use New Clout to Influence Democrats on Iraq
NYTimes
WASHINGTON, May 4 — Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members in the House and the Senate.
Shortly after, in a cramped meeting room here, they convene for a call with organizers across the country. They hash out plans for rallies. They sketch out talking points for “rapid response” news conferences. They discuss polls they have conducted in several dozen crucial Congressional districts and states across the country.
Over the last four months, the Iraq deliberations in Congress have lurched from a purely symbolic resolution rebuking the president’s strategy to timetables for the withdrawal of American troops. Behind the scenes, an elaborate political operation, organized by a coalition of antiwar groups and fine-tuned to wrestle members of Congress into place one by one, has helped nudge the debate forward.
On Thursday, leaders of the liberal group MoveOn.org, including Tom Matzzie, the group’s Washington director who also serves as the campaign manager for the coalition, sent a harshly worded warning to the Democratic leadership.

“In the past few days, we have seen what appear to be trial balloons signaling a significant weakening of the Democratic position,” the letter read. “On this, we want to be perfectly clear: if Democrats appear to capitulate to Bush — passing a bill without measures to end the war — the unity Democrats have enjoyed and Democratic leadership has so expertly built, will immediately disappear.”

The letter went on to say that if Democrats passed a bill “without a timeline and with all five months of funding,” they would essentially be endorsing a “war without end.” MoveOn, it said, “will move to a position of opposition.”

The antiwar coalition combines the online mobilization capabilities of MoveOn with the old-school political muscle of organized labor. They have been working in tandem with Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate on a systematic strategy to unify Democrats, divide Republicans and isolate the president.
Many of the major players in Americans Against Escalation in Iraq earned their stripes not from sit-ins, marches and other acts of civil disobedience but as Democratic operatives on Capitol Hill and in political campaigns. The sophisticated political operation they have built is a testament to how far the antiwar movement has come since the Vietnam era.

“The principle under which we’ve been operating is more like a political campaign,” Mr. Matzzie said. “The central strategy is creating that toxic environment for people who want to continue this debacle.”

The discussion at the retreat mirrored that of planning meetings for traditional political campaigns, with presentations on polling, strategy and field operations.
The National Security Network, a collection of liberal-leaning military and foreign policy experts headed by Rand Beers, former national security adviser to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, has deployed former generals and officials to persuade individual lawmakers.
After the president’s veto this week, the coalition organized 358 rallies and more than 20 news conferences across the country. Organizers had met with leadership staff members the week before to coordinate.

“The latest word from them is they are talking more and more about a short-leash option,” she said, referring to a plan in the House that would finance the war for only about three more months and require the administration to report back on progress being made by the Iraqi government. Congress would then vote again on the rest of the money requested by Mr. Bush.

Members of the Senate appear to be cool to the idea, but it has currency among some liberal advocates and members of the coalition.
Mr. Matzzie, of MoveOn, was clear about the stakes in the coming weeks, saying his group was only getting started. He emphasized that the next emergency spending bill must be one “to end the war.”

“This is act one of a three-act play,” he said. “Act two will be the summer. During the summer, our job is to create a firestorm of opposition.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Amazing that this was in the NY Times, it is an excellent article of how the pressure is kept up on the Dems in power to stay on target with their agenda, and the agenda of Soros and all the America haters. They are much more then anti-war as they are called. They are anti-America, loath America and are bound and determined to destroy this great country.
They are well organized and as the article says ( see complete article) will destroy their own party if their demands are not met.
They are communist and socialist groups all joining together for one purpose.
“Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members in the House and the Senate.”
The Democrats have majority control of the congress and moveon.org, ie, George Soros, has majority control over them. George Soros is leading the Coup d’état against President Bush and the USA.
Can this country survive fighting two wars, one at home and one away? I believe we can, but we need to stay sharp and vigilant and aware always. The left with all the smarts they have in knowing how to promote their agenda lack one thing and that is the reality in what they are dealing with in our enemy theirs and ours…..ISLAM. They are not showing the respect to the enemy in what IT can do to a person, and to a country. I will always respect my enemy for what he is capable of ie. Islam. Not a respect as in admiration, but in the dedication it has for it’s goal. Our military is more powerful then any insurgents group, any terrorist cell on earth. But the enemies goal is embedded deep in their DNA from childhood and that is a force that cannot be scoffed at under any circumstances.
The Democrats turn their head at reality of the enemy, they just will not accept that fighting back keeps the enemy away as much as possible. Add into that factor their deep seeded hate for the right, for Bush especially and their greed for power and control over the American population. Perhaps the similarities in the left and Islam are too close keeping the left from seeing the true image in the mirror.
Soros would have been one of the first to jump out of a window on 9-11 probably pushing others aside to make his way out. He is a control freak and people like that seem to be the first to fall apart when they are faced with real confrontation like an attack. He is not a leader but an evil in human form paying for his own death march into hell and wanting to take others with him.
Years ago during the Clinton regime, I used to post on a forum about politics. One day one of the lefties admitted by mistake that he was being paid to post there. He told of being in a room with many others sitting at computers and being paid to post his support for Clinton and the propaganda ( my word) of the left. In his admission it was his ego that brought him out of the closet of what he did for a living. A LIVING a JOB paid for by the DNC.
They are more organized now then back then, we know this, the article is not huge news, but it is telling in how organized they are and to what extremes they are threatening to take if not listened to by the politicians on the hill in the Democrat party.
The expression they are Dead On Serious comes to mind with DEAD being the key word. God help us if they succeed in their goals, because it will end up to be a gift wrapped America to Islam.