When Woolsey Met Harman

OpEdNews - David Swanson
....[California Democratic Congresswoman] Lynn Woolsey [ came to [LA] yesterday to support Jane Harman.

Jane Harman has never seen a war she didn't like or a crime by anyone important that she couldn't excuse. When caught on a warrantless wiretap by the Bush-Cheney gang conspiring with representatives of the Israeli government against her own, Harman chose to allow herself to be blackmailed. She pressured the New York Times to keep the story of warrantless spying programs secret until Bush could get into a second term as president. Harman's loyalty is not to the wishes of her constituents, not to the political fate of her party (the Democrats) and not to her country. In other words she's a model congress member.

Lynn Woolsey, another Democratic congress member, from Northern California, sometimes -- in fact more than almost anyone else -- votes against her party's leadership but with her constituents and the majority of Americans. She votes for peace, justice, decency, and good governance. But just about the only thing she does is vote right. And all of her good votes are countered by someone like Jane Harman, who always votes the worst way she can manage.....

It was an accomplishment not much less significant than any of Woolsey's accomplishments as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC).

........A couple of years ago, virtually the entire caucus, and some non-caucus members, a total of 90 congress members, signed a commitment not to vote for war funding. And with a few exceptions, they all turned around and voted for it. A few members, like Woolsey, will often vote the right way, once they are assured that the bill will go the wrong way and their vote won't actually displease Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In fact, Pelosi herself often votes against murderous legislation after guaranteeing its passage.

...........Woolsey votes the right way when it can have no impact, and does so more than just about anybody else. But is that ENOUGH, when Congress is funding mass murder with all of the money we need for saving lives, when people are losing their homes, when lifeguards are being pulled off the beaches for lack of funds out here, when state and city services are being eliminated, when our rotten education system is collapsing on itself, when the state of Hawaii will go without a congress member for lack of funds to hold an election.......

.....An all-out peace advocate would not raise money for Jane Harman, but would instead publicly shame Jane Harman's funders and call for a criminal investigation of both Harman and her blackmailers...


An all-out peace advocate in Congress would be exactly like . . . well, exactly like Marcy Winograd. ...  principled activist citizen challenging Jane Harman in an electoral primary and scaring her into whatever pressure it is she put on Lynn Woolsey that brought her down to Los Angeles to provide "progressive" cover........    Full story