Washblog

 copy of Stacy's blog today at Operation House Call Operation House Call

 Week Four, Day Three
Posted by Stacy Bannerman on

Folks on the ground for yet another sweltering day were Al, Audrey, Billie, Jessie, and Stacy.  Billie and Jessie spent some time on the Senate side, hoping to connect with folks from the NAACP, but got a surprisingly lukewarm response. On the House side, a number of elderly folks walked by the site, loudly proclaiming that we needed to keep the troops in Iraq and "fight the terrorists over there."  Inside the Longworth Building, Washington State residents Jessie Archibald and Stacy Bannerman met with Congressman Brian Baird, (D-WA).  The candid Congressman didn't mince words when speaking about the decision to invade Iraq, calling it "the single biggest foreign policy mistake in history", and had a few other choice remarks about the administration.  He proclaimed that he had voted against the invasion of Iraq, and remarked on the power of our vigil in front of the Cannon Building.  But he believed now that we had a responsibility to make things better for the people of Iraq, at which point Jessie reminded him that his primary responsibility was to his constituents, which included the men and women stationed at Fort Lewis.  Stacy laid out the obvious, telling him, "If someone breaks into your house under false pretenses, thinking there's a fire, for example, only to find that it's a picture of a fire, and then proceeds to rape your wife, kill your children, destroy your belongings, and gut the whole infrastructure of the house, do you ask him to stick around and re-build?  And just because he buys you a dishwasher, is that going to make it okay?"

When Baird was pressed to name the exact resolution he had signed on to calling for the return of our soldiers from Iraq, he couldn't say.  We did secure a commitment from him to look into endorsing HR 4232, McGovern's resolution.  which, in an unexpected turn of events, Senator Maria Cantwell, (D-WA), had said she would review with the idea of considering presenting a companion bill in the Senate. Stacy Bannerman made sure that Cantwell fully understood that McGovern's Resolution calls for the immediate discontinuation of all funding for the war in Iraq, with the exception of such monies as would allow for the safe and orderly return of the troops.  In the late afternoon meeting with the Senator on Tuesday, she repeatedly spoke about needing to flex "the power of the purse", and even thanked Stacy and Jessie for their advocacy.  Could Cantwell be the dark horse of the Democrats?

Stacy finished the day with a very brief, but extremely productive meeting with Congressman Kucinich (D-OH), who immediately agreed to initiate the process for a convening a hearing before his subcommittee on the human costs of war, with testimony from those who pay the price.

Report filed by Stacy Bannerman

Note: additional link to Stacy Bannerman ; author of 'When the War Came Home' published March 2006.