Parachuting in behind the lines

Yesterday was the 19th of January, 2007. I visited the Portland offices of US Senator Gordon Smith and had a chat for a little while with Deputy State Director Andrew J. Over: andrew_over@gsmith.senate.gov

Andrew is a nice young man. He told me that, even though the senator is against the war, even though he is opposed to the escalation, he will vote for the supplemental spending bill on the occupation of Iraq because, "the senator won't take bullets from the soldiers who are already there."

Sigh. I offered the notion that this how the president plans to keep troops there, or anywhere he wishes to keep them, even against the expressed wishes of Congress, if Congress cannot learn to act like a co-equal branch of government, the one with the power of the purse.

I went on to assure Andrew that folks from the Smith Campaign hope to have at least one person, preferably two, in the office daily until the vote, which is probably going to happen in late Feb or early March. I said that we are determined to help him decide to prod his boss, the senator, toward promising to vote against the supplemental. We want him to see us as his allies in this struggle to help him help Smith do what we regard as the right thing. We ended on a cordial note just as Troy Horton entered for his meeting with Kerry T.

If you'd like to join the in-person lobbying effort, contact Whitefeather Peace House at 503 327 8250. Kerry Bassett, Rhoda Moore or I will happily mark you down for your chosen date or dates and let you know if anyone else is also intending to be there as a peace lobbyist for any of those dates.

Blessed be,

Tom Hastings