John Conyers Jr's Blog

[brettdale]

http://www.conyersblog.us

Sunday, June 19th, 2005

"A Generational Commitment"??!!
Secretary Rice Lets the Truth Slip
The President Does Not Intend to Bring Our Troops Home

I find this truly astounding. As there is a growing bipartisan consensus in Congress that we need to get out of Iraq, and do so very very soon, this Administration appears to be heading in exactly the opposite direction. As Republican Senators publicly proclaim that the situation if Iraq is eroding, we learn that there is no "exit strategy" because no exit is planned. How out of touch with the reality on the ground and the reality here at home is this?

[brettdale]

1. Keep the Signatures coming

I have four categories of things to tell you – three general and one detailed.

First, I could not have achieved the milestone of today’s hearing, letter delivery and other events without your help. DSM is a function of the blogosphere, and throughout the process I have benefitted immeasurably from your comments and support.

Second, today we made abundantly clear, that when rights are being trampled on by the Administration, Democrats will not sit idly by and watch. We can and will act, we can and will investigate, we can and will hold hearings, we can and will take these investigations wherever they lead us.

Third, in terms of my on-line letter, I welcome more signatures, and I will see that every last one is delivered to the president.

Fourth, in terms of the specifics of the day, see below:

• Our long awaited hearing on the Downing Street Minutes was scheduled to begin at 2:30 PM in HC-9 in the basement of the Capitol. This is one of the smallest meeting rooms in the Capitol complex, holding only about 50 people, but was the only room available to us as a result of the GOP’s refusal to make any normal hearing rooms available to us. I got to the hearing at 2PM, and witnessed a phalanx of about ten cameras in the room, with 4 or five more outside the room. There were an additional twenty or so print reporters. About 100 more people – including numerous live bloggers – showed up at our overflow room at the DNC.

• At approximately 2:15 PM, the Republicans scheduled 11 consecutive floor votes, lasting until approximately 4 PM. This is unprecedented in my memory, and if we had allowed it to, it could have ruined the hearing. But a hearty group of Democratic Members helped me carry on, and we were able to continue the hearings through the votes by essentially taking turns running back and forth to the House floor.

• The hearing itself was amazingly informative, moving and informational. Raw Story has my opening statement (along with much more). The witnesses were well informed and helped us create a tremendous record moving forward. Their basic testimony continued until approximately 3 PM, and was followed by a round of questions from most of the 30 members who joined us at one point or another. We also had a surprise guest in the form of Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department before the start of the Iraq war due to her believe that the intelligence was being fixed and manipulated. At the very end of the hearing all of the family members of deceased soldiers stood up and spoke out. They showed tremendous courage. Bradblog has a great lowdown of the entire hearing, including an audio feed. C-SPAN broadcast live and simulcast and will rebroadcast over the next several days. Radio Pacifica broadcast audio live, and Air America and Randi Rhodes cut in frequently. There was quite a bit of talk among the Members that we had crossed the tipping point on the DSM, and that further disclosures and activism would have a commutative effect on the White House and public opinion. We finished the hearing about 5:30.

• Of course we were not done. About ten members and I proceeded to caravan over to the White House, where we delivered the letter signed by more than 560,000 Americans and 122 Members of Congress demanding answers. There were several hundred protestors at the White House along with least a dozen cameras.. In front of all of these witnesses, the White House staff refused to permit any of us to enter. They did take the petitions, but I would think that sitting Members of Congress deserve a bit more respect.

• There is more. We next proceeded to a rally in front of several hundred more people at LaFayette Park. Many of the witnesses spoke there, along with my friend Tom Hayden and the Members of Congress who had joined me at the White House delivery. Finally, we had to stop as the GOP had scheduled yet more votes on the House floor.

There is much, much more to come, the least of which is we will not stop with this hearing. But I’m exhausted now, so I’ll stop.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[brettdale]

3. who knows?

Pressure must be kept on the DSM and the DSM story cannot die, we must conuine to pound the Internet with this story.